Born in Leeds, Joash Woodrow was one of eight sons and two daughters. Joash initially trained at Leeds at College of Art after which he served in the army as a cartographer – Egypt 1945 – 1948. Between 1950 & 1953 he studied drawing and painting at the Royal College of Art. Shortly after graduating from the RCA Joash returned to his home in Chapel Allerton, Leeds where he lived an increasingly solitary life. In 2000, 772 paintings and 4,500 drawings were found at his home; Joash having been moved to sheltered accommodation following a period of prolonged poor health. The first ever exhibition of Joash Woodrow’s paintings was held at 108 Fine Art in 2002; representing the first glimpse of the artists out-put between 1940 and the 1990’s. Since then solo exhibitions have been held at Leeds City Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, the Ben Uri Art Gallery, London, Leeds Metropolitan University Art Gallery and several other University art galleries. His work is held in the collections of Leeds City Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, The Ben Uri, Liverpool University, Hull University, and Liverpool Metropolitan University. A highly successful exhibition was held at the Fine Art Society, London, in 2009. Woodrow died in 2006.