Steve Whitehead is a British painter, born in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1960. He studied at the

Aberystwyth University , mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all , established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'') , former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth , type = Public , endowment = ...

, with David Tinker, graduating with an MA in Fine Art in the mid-1980s, before continuing his studies at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

in London. Whitehead is predominantly a landscape painter, although he also produces figure compositions. His art is sometimes described as a form of

Photorealism Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...

, although according to the art critic Michael Paraskos it is more like a Poetic Realism, as Whitehead does not simply reproduce photographs in paint, but creates composite images, drawing on many photographs and historic art images. In particular, Whitehead's art is influenced by the landscape traditions of northern European romantics, such as

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscape ...

, and the realism of the

Biedermeier The ''Biedermeier'' period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in ...

realist painters. He has twice won the

Wales Open The Wales Open was a professional golf tournament on the European Tour played at the Celtic Manor Resort. It was played annually from 2000 to 2014, as part of a 15-year deal between the tour and the Celtic Manor Resort, that included staging the ...

and has also been a prizewinner in Manchester Academy and Hunting Art Prizes exhibitions. His paintings are held in the permanent collection of the Contemporary Art Society of Wales. He previously taught Fine Art at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull ...

and is a regular visiting artist at the

Cyprus College of Art The Cyprus College of Art (CyCA) is an artists' studio group, located in the village of Lempa, Cyprus, Lempa on the west coast of Cyprus. It was founded in 1969 by the artist Stass Paraskos; the current director is the Cyprus-based artist Margaret ...

. He is represented by the Plus One Gallery in London, and the Modern Artists Gallery in Berkshire. Whitehead is the subject of a book by the art critic Michael Paraskos published in 2008.Michael Paraskos, ''Steve Whitehead'' (London: Orage Press, 2008)

References

1960 births Living people 20th-century British painters 21st-century British artists Artists from Coventry Alumni of Aberystwyth University Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art {{UK-painter-stub