Born 1952, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Studied at Edinburgh University (1979-75) and Edinburgh College of Art (1975-76).

As an artist Howard’s oeuvre has largely been concerned with arcane subjects such as alchemical symbolism, hermeticism and medieval and renaissance iconography. His elaborate, surreal paintings are densely populated with symbols to represent and comment on, for example, the stories of ancient martyrs and heretics.

He was awarded the Helen Rose Travelling Scholarship to Italy in 1976/77 when he studied in Florence, Siena, Venice and Milan. From that point on he exhibited regularly in galleries in Scotland and the UK and by 1995 was represented internationally at exhibitions in Holland, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Croatia and elsewhere.

Between 1995 and 1997 Howard was commissioned by the publishers Random House in London, Henry Holt in New York and St Martin’s Press, New York to design the covers for seven of Salman Rushdie’s novels.

Teaching and lecturing have been an important element in Howard’s career: he was Lecturer in Painting at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen (1977-86), Head of Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee (1986-95), Professor of Fine Art at the University of Dundee (1995-2001), Dean of Faculty at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art University of Dundee (1999-2001) and Principal of Edinburgh College of Art (2001-11).
His work has been acquired for more than thirty public, university and corporate art collections.

Towers