BRADFORD artist Steven Spencer has an exhibition in the city starting this month. We asked him about his work and life.
Q: When did you become interested in art?
A: The need to express myself creatively is something that has been with me from an early age. I still have a scraperboard image of a pirate ship I did as a six-year-old at Green Lane School.
I really should have listened to Mr Khan, my art teacher at Rhodesway School, when he wanted to put me in for O-Level art. In the mid 1970’s no one said you could actually have a career in art - it was seen as a hobby, so I took woodwork instead.
Without funding I couldn't get into art college, but managed to get a number of commissions for montage posters used by a video rental outlet, plus interior designs for the Bali Hai nightclub and Bradford Bier Keller at Fountains Hall.
I was almost 24 when I finally managed to get on to Bradford School of Art’s Art and Design Foundation Course - my second attempt. While there I met and became friends with my tutors, sculptor Ian Taylor and painter Doug Binder. Through Ian I got to meet and work with the watercolourist Ian Gardner and landscape sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. They were also members of The New Arcadians, a group of writers and artists headed by Ian Hamilton Finlay who I attended several events with.
My journey took me to Wolverhampton School of Art and Design where I gained my degree in fine art, working under the guidance of Knighton Hoskin, Paresh Chakraborty and landscape artist Paul Hempton.
Q: Did any artist(s) inspire you?
A: As artists we absorb so much visual information from art and artists through the ages, but for me I was drawn to the work of the great watercolourists Thomas Girtin, John Sell Cotman and Peter De Wint. Their use of watercolour creates tones and atmospheres that illustrate Britain’s nuances throughout the changing seasons perfectly. I’m also influenced by the work of Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage and how he responds to the moorlands through his poems.
On my foundation course I was lucky enough to work alongside artist Ian Gardner whose use of watercolour and the way he explored his subjects is something that made a big impression on me and the way I approach my own painting.
Q: Tell us about your career as an artist?
A: I graduated in Fine Art in 1987 and got a temporary job at Empire Stores mail order catalogue. Back in those days an artist could move into many varied and diverse areas of the creative sector. A lucky break got me noticed by the Catalogue Designs department director Audrey Jewitt. She was so impressed after three days she set me on producing print-ready finished artwork. They soon realised I could turn my hand to layout design and developing concepts.
Everything was hand-produced in the late 1980s as computer aided design was still not available. My wife, Susan, saw an evening course in DTP and Apple Mac at Bradford College which I enrolled on. I had been reading up on how new technology was making its mark on the world of design and successfully completed the 12 week course. By the mid-990s Empire had been taken over by French mail order giant La Redoute who brought in Apple Mac design computers. I was already up to speedwith the new technology and seamlessly made the transition from traditional working methods to digital design.
One of my greatest contributions to the world of mail order catalogues was to completely change the way bicycles were presented and sold in the catalogue. I produced dynamic concepts that took bikes out of the realms of the toy section into serious sporting machines, complete with gear and other specification information graphics. It revolutionised how bikes were presented when it went live in the spring/summer catalogue of 1988. All other catalogues were still displaying their bikes as toys, but after my designs sent shock waves through the mail order world, they had to follow the lead I had set.
Looking for a new challenge I moved to the Telegraph & Argus as an editorial graphic artist. My prowess with traditional and digital artwork brought an extra dimension to the newspaper and I was able to fuse my hand-drawn illustrations with digital content.
Working with some amazing journalists throughout my time at the T&A was a fantastic experience and we created some exceptional and engaging features.
I’m known for the daily letters page cartoons, of which I produced a few thousand, and the wonderfully rewarding humorous illustrations for ‘Bantams Banter’ when Bradford City FC were in the Premier League.
I was made redundant in 2015 after 16 years. After leaving the newspaper I returned to painting and exhibited with The Bradford Arts and Crafts Network and in recent years Beck Art Group.
Q: How would you describe your art?
A: Like most creatives my work has changed and developed over the decades: I am very comfortable switching between graphic and fine art, which my side hustle Wool City Art allows me the freedom to do.
My paintings are mainly landscapes, both urban and rural, for which I can use watercolour and various mixed media to achieve the look I want.
I began painting open landscapes in watercolour around 1982. It’s a very portable medium and you can take it anywhere with you. It is also perfectly suited to capturing the British lighting and weather conditions. However, it is the objects that exist within the landscape that inspire me. They have a life and character all of their own.
Q: Do you have a home studio where you work?
A: For many years my work was done on the kitchen table. I work in a fairly small format and recently I have started converting the spare room into a studio.
Q: Describe a typical day at work as an artist.
A: A lie in is impossible when you have a lively beagle, so after breakfast, it's on with my walking boots and out with Phoenix into the local nature reserve at Raw Nook, Low Moor. Most of my best thinking is done while on our morning trot. I get my best ideas away from the distractions of urban surroundings.
After coffee I usually spend around an hour on social media, posting new work or creative content on my social media platforms. I also think it’s important to support other artists and galleries in our area by sharing or posting content to promote their events.
I’m quite a slow worker, building up layers of watercolour has its own pace so I can be a few hours working on a painting over a number of weeks.
I often switch between painting and digital graphic work as I also use my designs on things like mugs, prints and cards.
Q: Does anything in the local area inspire you?
A: The vast moorlands that straddle the South Pennines are landscapes that are constantly changing. For thousands of years people have inhabited this often harsh, but beautiful environment and left their mark through carved stones, dry stone walls, managed grouse moors and wind turbines.
When I began to draw and paint the moors the expanse of the landscape filled my surface. As I explored I began to take more notice of the objects that inhabit this wild landscape and how they endure against the severe effects of the elements.
More recently I have become aware of the impact man is having on our moorlands and how I relate to them in comparison with past inhabitants such as Late Neolithic and Bronze Age communities, and literary figures like The Bronte Sisters. The landscape I walk through is very different to the one that these people would have experienced.
Q: Where have you exhibited?
A: In Bradford my work has been exhibited at St. George’s Hall, Cartwright Hall, South Square Centre, Trapezium Arts and The Apothecary Gallery. I have also shown my work at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and The Open Gallery, Halifax
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: I’m very excited about the new material I am working on, which is forcing me to reexamine the way I work and how I explore a subject. September sees me returning as a solo artist after Patrick Whitehead of The Apothecary Gallery, Thornton, kindly invited me to exhibit at this popular venue.
*Where Spirits Sleep by Steven A. Spencer is at The Apothecary Gallery, 57 Market St, Thornton, Bradford BD13 3EN, from September 28 to October 19, 2024.
Preview evening Friday, September 27, 2024. 6 pm - 9 pm.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here