Artist Profile - Tony Purser
Biography
Steve was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire in 1957. Between 1974/78 he served in the Royal Air Force during which time he began his formal art training while still in service. Upon leaving the RAF he continued travelling extensively through Scandinavia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. After completing a foundation course at Wirral College he graduated from Stourbridge College of Art with a first class honours in fine art, specializing in painting and printmaking.
Artist Statement
Steve has extensive experience as a curator, judging and exhibiting art through a range of appointments including artist in residence at Chester Zoo, executive committee member for National Acrylic Painters Association and trustee of the Visual Art Network. He is currently the Exhibition Curator for Ludlow Assembly Rooms and Co director of the Sandford Gallery, whilst exhibiting nationally in solo and group exhibitions as a self employed artist.
My pictures are sourced through the tradition of English landscape painting. They are inspired by the colour, patterns, textures, shapes and image notes - abstracted down by extensive use of sketchbooks.
The paintings themselves are experiments in colour, and reflect the strength and power found in the natural elements. I have built up a strong decorative abstract language, which reflects the landscape environment, such as details found in the countryside detritus.
Clues for interpreting the paintings are often reflected not only in the construction of the picture, but also in the titling of the piece, which for me are like names on the map of the artist’s world as well as incorporating actual place names of local areas visited, musical references, poetry or pieces of edited words and phrases which are often an emotional reminder of a particularly Shropshire vista.
I always find that the physical act of painting pictures and of mixing paint is a kind of motivation in itself. When the act of painting takes over, it focuses one’s eye into dealing purely with the process of the abstract of colour and mark making upon a surface within a defined area. For me, this is achieved by either using a variety of specifically made shallow boxed canvases and by mixing powders with acrylics, which extends the palette range of tones and hues. Or by mix medium experiments using a shadow or trompe l’oeil technique (in my case it is called ‘Abstract Illusionism’). The visual result gives the paintings a bright, strong, individual look.