Steve White of Aberdare
Artwork mainly focusing upon Welsh landscape in ‘The Valleys’ and the Brecon Beacons area close to Aberdare. There is a special emphasis on the effects of mineral extraction, mining, quarrying and associated communities. My own fascination with this subject, over many years, is probably connected with my father’s work in geology. Dad was employed as a mining geologist with the National Coal Board here in South Wales at the time of my birth.
‘We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time’
- T.S.Eliot (from Four Quartets’)
When painting, I am seeking after several things. An image emerges, vaguely, in my mind’s eye. I toy with the paint, mix a colour…probably some sludgy, greyish umber…and begin. Application is ideally fluent and instinctual. With luck, something happens and I know what to do next. If not, it does n’t matter too much…there is always tomorrow! Sometimes the best things happen after a poor start; for painting remains so splendidly unpredictable, offering no guarantees. I suppose freedom is both the intention and the objective!
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