My Art: by by Steven Dean

‘Unique Abstract Imagery’ is printed on my calling card and it is an accurate description of my aims as a modern artist. A resident of Stoke-on-Trent since 1988, I have ‘drawn pictures’ since early childhood. My previous adventures with canvas had always been landscapes in oils; although I spent a few years prior to that producing surreal images in water colours and pencil, pen, and ink.

A chance meeting with successful modern artist Billy James in Coffs Harbour, Australia, last year made me decide to try abstract images in acrylics myself. Billy advised that the secret of an interesting abstract picture is in its application; the more energy the finished image contains, the more a viewer appreciates the image’s appearance.

I do my best to instil a certain degree of vibrancy in every picture created; endeavouring to make them ‘buzz’ as much as possible. When considering which abstract path to take, I recalled an incident at school nearly 40 years ago; when one of a new wave of art teachers straight from university shook our art department to its crumbling old foundations with his fresh, modern ideas. Compared to the other art masters, who, deeply steeped in tradition, absolutely hated him, he was a breath of fresh air; and I developed the technique I use today in the time spent under his tutelage; a technique he encouraged with great enthusiasm. To my regret, I cannot find his name anywhere on my memory’s dusty shelves; but he himself will never be forgotten.

My images on display so far at the Burslem Arts shop were painted over a period of two months spent earlier this year in Fremantle, Western Australia. A great place to be; although it looks like Burslem could be at the cutting edge of art in the not-too-distant future – and why not?

The spirit of art is embedded imperishably in its very infrastructure, it has the heritage to achieve the kudos it so richly deserves.