Steven lives in Melbourne Australia, he has a degree and Post grad in painting from Edinburgh College of Art, and studied with Australian artist Yvonne Audette.
Growing up in England, Steven was influenced by the British New Romantic painters from the Second World War – John Sutherland, Paul Nash, John Piper – and of course the British romantic tradition of Turner and Constable. At college he participated in a series of art summer schools culminating in a residency in Dieppe France. While at Edinburgh, He was awarded an Art summer school at Arbroath creative art centre and tutored life drawing for the students attending night school.
Steven is steeped in the Art of the old masters to which he aims to give a contemporary feel, using the human form as a catalyst for expressive potential. Stevens recent work explores the facture of paint handling and surface through dragging and scraping paint over the canvas from which figures and environments emerge and dissolve in the spontaneous play of paint, generated in the moment of creation.
Stevens imagery aims for something of the spirit and the struggle to overcome, through thematic motifs he explores the eternal search for meaning, the dramas of life’s mythic narratives. His current influences include Gerhard Richter , Per Kirkeby and Cecily Brown.
Steven moved to Australia in 1993 and currently lives in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne with his wife Natasha.
Educational Achievements
- 1986-1990 Bachelor of Arts Degree in Painting
Edinburgh College of Art – Heriot-Watt University, Scotland. - 1991 Post Graduate Diploma in Painting
Edinburgh College of Art – Heriot-Watt University, Scotland. - 1995 Graduate Diploma of Education (secondary)
Monash University – Gippsland campus, Victoria, Australia.
Awards and Scholarships
- 1980-1985 Chosen for a series of extra-curricular art school activities culminating in a summer school in Dieppe, France.
- 1989 Awarded summer school at Hospital Field House Creative Arts Centre, Arbroath, Scotland.
- 1990 Andrew Grant Bequest Scholarship for Painting, Edinburgh, Scotland.
- 1991 Andrew Grant Bequest Award for Post Graduate Study, Edinburgh, Scotland.