Steve Roberts
The Feeling of Landscape
Steve Roberts is a contemporary landscape artist currently living and working in the Cotswolds, UK. Steve has exhibited throughout the UK including Gloucestershire, south Wales and London. In 2024 he held his debut solo exhibition 'LUSCIOUS' at Spring Cheltenham. He has been represented by Art Cotswold (now 'Houghton Art'). His work has been selected for several open call group shows. Steve is an active participant in the wider artistic community and is a member of artForce collective, Stroud Artists Cooperative and New Bath Arts Club.
Steve has a BA in Fine Art from the Cardiff School of Art graduating in 2012 and an MA in Illustration from the University of Gloucestershire where he graduated in 2021.
Contact
For all queries including sales, gallery representation or general enquiries, please send a message to:
Steve Roberts
steverobertsart@hotmail.com
About
Landscapes can be expansive, providing a sense of freedom or still, inviting contemplation. They are filled with associations and narratives, encompassing simultaneously the past, present and future. These are transient spaces where the weather conditions, light quality and atmosphere dance in a perpetual state of flux. Ultimately, it is our human relationship to landscape, how these places change the way we feel that resonates so strongly with us. It is this resonance, the feeling of being stood within the landscape that I am looking to communicate in my work.
My painting practice begins by painting on location in rural and urban landscapes (a process known as ‘en plein air). Each experience of working outdoors is different, sometimes I will finish a painting on location whilst other times, I will use a combination of sketches, studies and memory to produce work once back in the studio. For the past few years, I have disregarded using any photographic source as I sense a barrier between myself and the work which clouds my ability to communicate feeling. My approach to painting is fast and direct with a minimal amount of pre-planning. Though this approach can lead to disappointment on occasion, when successful, the paintings possess a certain visceral charge made possible by letting go of a fixation on the outcome and instead engaging with the present.
The interplay of colour, texture and form is a continual source of fascination for me. The relationship between muted and saturated, thick and thin, abstraction and figuration, these are the dynamics that I am always exploring within my work. With openness and curiosity, I allow my paintings to evolve naturally over time whilst following the thread of conveying a sense of atmosphere and feeling within the work.