Born in Worthing UK in 1960, Steve moved to Wales as a child and undertook his professional training in Fine Art and Painting at Cardiff. Between 1985 and 2002, he exhibited widely and developed an international reputation for Kite Art. In the early 90’s Steve began spending time in Spain and in 1998 returned to oil painting. Most of his paintings are to commission and alongside kites they are held in numerous private collections around the world.
After 11 years as a paragliding pilot; starting to fly paramotors in 2006, gave Steve the opportunity to be in the air and concentrate on the subtleties of the land. What he saw, and was drawn to, was this textural landscape and mark-making that directly links to his latest paintings. The camera has become the perfect tool to capture and convey this world. These aerial images make up his current work are both revealing and compelling.
"Lines in the landscape have a fascination, from the Nazcar lines to the Great Wall of China - these momentous delineations of the landscape viewed from above remind us of our love of making marks on this world in a grand scale. However, unbeknownst to us, we are making marks on a smaller, but no less aesthetic scale, from footprints that trace journeys in soft ground; the emboldened marks and divisions in the landscape that were drawn by tractors, vehicles, planting and the variation of form through the passage of the sun. These are aerial images taken from my paramotor - the oblique and long shadows causing ephemeral worlds to be created under my feet. Flying makes these visible - our paths, our patterns, our ways."
