I have spent the last six winters living by the North Cornish coast, immersing myself in the beauty and elemental forces of Tregardock Beach in North Cornwall. The work is visceral and spontaneous as a result, charged by the movement of the sea, wind and changing light. I have sought to capture moments as they present themselves on my daily walks to the beach, responding to them intuitively with scratched marks of charred wood, swathes of thick oil paint, pastel, sand and seawater.
My process of creating work has been experimental throughout, consciously surrendering my notion of what I might want to create on a given day and allowing the place to come to meet me. As I have come to realise, drawing in this fashion is exactly what Tregardock called of me, to follow in the ebbs and flows, and to stop and pay attention to those moments which arrest me.
Tim Steward (b.1975) trained in classical drawing and painting at Lavender Hill Studios in London and currently divides his time between North Cornwall and Oxford.
Tim’s work has always focused on specific places for long periods of time, working both on the street, in the landscape and in the elements. This outdoor working is significant to seeing and feeling the subject and in connecting with a place.
Over the last six years his focus has encompassed a specific stretch of the North Cornwall coastline near Port Isaac. There is a deep connectedness to the wildness of this sculpted environment which goes back to his childhood. This project, like those in this past, has taken him on a journey, where through study he will see and feel things more deeply over time and make art which records this evolving process.
For several years Tim undertook drawing projects in the hospitality sector for Sabre Design, on behalf of Mitchell and Butler. Examples from this period of time can be seen at the Moat House in Alcester and the Queen and Castle in Kenilworth. From 2012-2021, he worked with Clarendon Fine Art and Whitewall Galleries, exhibiting his work around England. As well as architectural drawings, work included drawings of classical musicians and ballerinas. Over this time he had several solo shows, including Mayfair, Bath and Cheltenham.
His body of figurative work entitled 'Stripped Back' looks at aspects of beauty and brokenness in the context of his christian faith, and this work continues to be exhibited each year as part of the Oxford Lent Concerts in Queens College Chapel in Oxford.
