Cherish This Moment Print

Since 2009 my paintings have been featured in UK national art foundation syllabuses for quality of light. (I found my name by chance in an online document next to Willem de Kooning and Howard Hodgkin!). It kind of explained why I was getting kids email me asking a lot of questions . . . I've now been painting, exhibiting and selling work in Cornwall and elsewhere for almost forty years. I've written some blurb below here to tell you more about myself in relation to painting: [Artist Steve Slimm - Short Biography (Sept 2018)] I was born in the Black Country town of Netherton in 1953. My dad was a hydraulic engineer and my mom was a dedicated, (albeit extremely creative), mother. Following a move to the Cotswolds, I attended Cheltenham Grammar School from 1964-69. Although accomplished in a variety of academic subjects, my passion was always with art and music. In 1970 the family moved to Cornwall, and within twelve months I became involved in painting, at first as a hobby, and then with increasing passion - eventually exhibiting in St. Ives galleries (from 1980). My first influence in Cornwall was no doubt the local reputable artist John Miller, whose classes I attended for nine months. John kindly encouraged me over several years. I think the fact that he saw something special in me, even in those early days, gave me the impetus to continue pursuing my dream - to touch the world with my vision. Within a few years my work was being taken up by collectors and local art-lovers for its loose descriptive flow of colour and form. And I began to scrape a living by selling my art. My primary influence, however, has to be J.M.W. Turner, whose work I studied almost obsessively for the first decade of my career. For hours I would pour over books of his paintings and experiment with techniques to try to capture light as he does. I don't think I ever wanted to directly copy his paintings, but was intent instead on keenly observing the way he moved paint - especially to create the feeling of light. For me this was far more exciting than going to any art college. Another major influence on my life has to be the fact that I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. Although leaving the movement in my early forties, a significant factor would certainly relate to this religious upbringing.