Stephen Gregory

Artist Statement

My pictures are grounded in varying mixes of note-taking sketches….of people, activities and locations, plus memory and invention. I try to reconnect to the heightened imagination of my teenage years and to visualise narratives, plots and situations in a less inhibited manner.

It seemed important to challenge myself to make images of people and human activity and to develop my own inherent style.

My inspiration might be in observing local neighbourhood incidents, or perhaps from a chance encounter on a train. However, since the summer of 2020 most of my pictures have been related to locations in Kyle of Lochalsh, just across the bridge from Skye. Kyle has a wonderful multi-level topography, a rich interplay between natural and built features and an eye -catching array of residential, industrial and commercial buildings.

In the past my paintings have had different styles and subjects, and you can find examples of my earlier work on my website.

I was born in 1951 and grew up in Manchester and Stockport, England. My parents ran a gents outfitting business and I'm sure my Dad's amazing window dressing and ticket writing skills will have influenced any capability I have in design.

My higher education comprised of a degree in fine art at Newcastle University and then an MA in painting at Manchester Polytechnic. Later, I gained an art teacher's certificate from Goldsmith's College, London.

In the late 1970s I was fortunate to be appointed as an artist in residence in Milton Keynes. The subject matter of my work at that time derived from an interest in the forms, shapes and shadows of construction sites and heavy industry and the development of the new city provided me with many suitable images.

Several of my paintings from that time are in public collections in Milton Keynes, including those of the Borough Council, The Open University and the Milton Keynes Hospital, and images can be found on the Art UK website.

I went on to become involved in community arts for several years; an artist-facilitator for the concerns and aspirations of many different community groups with whom I worked in Northampton, followed by Cheshire and then Nottingham.

By the millennium, I had returned, with a young family, to north-east England. I managed the decommissioned lighthouse in Whitley Bay as an educational resource and visitor attraction and, later, worked on the support staff at a local high school.

By this time I had returned to making my own paintings in my spare hours, and, after many years of it being a fantasy, the prospect of my partner and myself being able to re-locate to north west Scotland was becoming a reality.
We moved to Skye in 2016, whereupon I was able to resume painting full time.