Stewart Lees British, Contemporary

Stewart brings to the genre of still life his years of experience as an illustrator and painter of figures, portraits and landscapes. Stewart has taken a great deal of inspiration from studying the Dutch Stilleven artists of the seventeenth-century but also finds himself returning again and again to the works of Andrew Wyeth, whose interiors, landscapes, figures and still life paintings captured light, texture and, above all mood and atmosphere, almost entirely through the most obsessive and meticulous draughtsmanship. Stewart’s paintings invariably start with one object, be that a weathered and gnarled piece of wood or a ripe and juicy tomato, plucked from the local market stall that morning, and from there tones, textures and flavours will draw a composition into being. Even the smallest still life compositions tell his story.

 Upon leaving art school, Stewart pursued a successful career as a graphic designer and illustrator, establishing his own agency in 1985. In the early nineties, with technology muscling in on all areas of design and illustration and replacing the use of traditional skills, Stewart took the decision to give almost all of it up and move his family to deepest, rural France to be a painter. Stewart has been exhibiting with Gladwell & Patterson, formerly W. H. Patterson, since 2010, and his work has captured international collectors, from China to America, with his delicately balanced and immaculately painted compositions. In 2017 Stewart returned to Le Midi in south-eastern France, where he now lives and works.