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Born in Glasgow in 1956 Steve grew up in Dumfries and studied at art school.
Upon leaving, he became an apprentice electrician for a brief period, as he was
uncertain of where his artistic path led. In 1973, Carlisle College offered him
a placement, where, during the second year, he opted for a change in medium,
preferring photography to painting. He found black & white formats extremely
inspiring and exciting to work with, seeing himself in fact as an artist but
utilising a camera rather than paint.
Upon leaving college he moved to London where he did freelance work for teen
magazines, which led to work for Vogue in 1977, where his work was included in
the ¡¥Pink Punk Book¡¦ published in 1978. This style of photo launched the first
issue of i-D magazine in 1980, where he worked for the following few years. In
1991, when photography no longer became inspirational for him, he started
painting seriously again concentrating once again on the medium that he had
originally embraced. ¡§It was then that something clicked and I have not looked
back since¡K¡Kpainting is my life.¡¨
He is always drawn to figures that create a great shape. Details such as ¡¥how¡¦
someone is standing or ¡¥what¡¦ they are doing come into play afterwards. It is
the graphic shape of the ¡¥body mass¡¦ that inspires the first ideas. Certain
images can unlock powerful emotions which are separate from what the actual
content of the picture could create if focused on in more detail.
He attempts to take the voyeur somewhere with a sense of the familiar that has
an almost ephemeral and ethereal quality, rather than somewhere specific. With
the same reasoning, he does not depict figures to be anyone in particular. ¡§The
aim is to portray an essence and emotion rather than a well defined and precise
person or location, as I am not interested in set narrative pieces.¡¨
Steve always takes the shape of his figures from photographs, generally using
side or back views to create a more anonymous character. For this same reason he
prefers minimal backgrounds.
Using a mixture of oil and acrylic on the same canvas, he likes to experiment
and play with colour to draw as much emotional response from the image as
possible. The backgrounds are always in acrylic, whilst the figures are always
in oil. This is so the oil figure can be worked on in a way that will make it
stand out from the background.
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