Welcome!

Hello and welcome.

I’m John Withey, founder of Kind Owl Gallery, which I started as a place to share and sell my work.

As a little background, I studied visual arts at Leeds Arts University and Leeds Beckett University before moving into photography and creative design.

As an artist, I currently work primarily with digital processes, using them as a way to explore form, colour, and atmosphere. I’m particularly interested in themes of memory and nature, using simple abstract shapes, textures, and palettes to create imagined, dreamlike landscapes that aim to convey a mood or intangible experience.

I’m influenced by many of the ideas found in collage. It has helped me find new ways of seeing and explore how elements combine, and I continue to use it as a loose framework and starting point. However, at its core, my practice is driven by a simple enjoyment of making and creating. I’m interested in art as something instinctive and sustaining, shaped by everyday influences such as music, culture, history, and the visual world around us. For me, making work is a way of paying attention, being curious, and spending time with ideas that don’t always need to resolve themselves.