Stephen Todd
Degree: BA Fine Art
University: Sheffield Hallam University
Graduation Year: 1999
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What makes a story? It can be hard to tell, especially when stories so thoroughly make up the fabric of life. As writer Joan Didion famously wrote, “we tell ourselves stories in order to live”, so do we even want to separate life from story? For Masters artist Stephen Todd, it’s a tricky predicament - each of his paintings muses on how we spin narratives, how they record the past, and how they alter our futures. With a focal point in mind, Todd often begins by researching the historic significance of a place or event, then begins to loosen any internalised facts. Through scenic paintings, he opens up a landscape to speculation, wonder, nostalgia, and even a sense of low-lying despair.
Through layering marks, colours and forms using gouache, Indian ink, pastels and graphite, he captures the many superimpositions of history and its haunting spectres. For example, in one piece he weaves the grandeur of Greek mythology into his immediate perception of the Humber estuary. Compressing time zones and juxtaposing spatial distance, Todd purveys history in a way that makes leaps in imagination that are often stunted in today’s fast-paced, technologically filtered world.
Todd has a really unique history himself – he was a Social Worker in Mental Health for 10 years, recalling that it was “something that gave me the privilege of seeing deeply into other people’s lives”. He then decided to switch lanes to an artistic career, telling us that it was the life-drawing classes with John Epstein that had a truly formative effect on him. “I went to class thinking I wanted to learn about perspective and technique, but came away realising that was all secondary”. Instead he realised “painting and drawing are fundamentally about instinctive responses” – a mentality that infuses his practice to this day.
Artist Statement
The main methods of my practice are painting, drawing, print-making and photographic means. I make work that has a strong sense of marks and lines that are a mixture of the instinctive, deliberate and accidental, often incorporating words or lines of texts. I try to maintain a direct use of colour and to reference the materials being used. Drawing is an essential process for me, charcoal an important medium and life drawing a basic discipline. I started life drawing in 1980 with John Epstein in London and continue to explore the instinctive approach he provoked. It is important for me to achieve a drawing full of movement, even from a static figure.
I also undertake research that considers the historic significance of places and events. This investigates how the past is recorded and represented to determine how we understand and internalise it. How are facts constructed? I seek to bring this more thoughtful and conceptual approach into the range of work I undertake.
In conclusion, my work is figurative in its inspiration and I seek to make pieces that are visually strong, aesthetic in quality and that continue to affect the viewer.
Solo Exhibitions
(2021) Allotments, Kentmere House Gallery, York
(2021) Fact from Fiction (Reprise), Cupola Gallery, Sheffield
(2020) Fact from Fiction, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield
(2019) Inner Landscapes, Ropewalk Gallery, Barton upon Humber
(2018) Humber Estuary: Inward Visions, Beverley Museum and Art Gallery, Beverley
(2014) Land as Disquiet, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield
(2011) Angel of History, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield
(2009) Seascapes, Cooper Gallery, Barnsley
(2009) Restless Nature, The Circle, Sheffield
(2008) Restless Nature, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield
(2007) Show of Evidence, Derby City Museum and Art Gallery, Derby
(2004) Presentation of Facts, Bloc Gallery, Sheffield
(2004) Chosen, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield
(2001) Roman Rigg, Clifton Park Museum, Rotherham
Group Exhibitions
(2023) Mixed Show, Gallery at Salt, Beverley
(2023) ING Discerning Eye, Mall Gallery, London
(2022) Harley Open, Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire
(2020) Winter Exhibition, Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donnington
(2020) Ferens Open, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
(2020) Harley Open 2020, Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire
(2017) Ways of Seeing, Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donnington
(2017) This Burning Love, The Old Lock Up Gallery, Cromford
(2016) Top Draw, Ropewalk Gallery, Barton-upon-Humber
(2015) Whitby Work, Art Cafe Gallery, Whitby
(2014) Coastal Exhibition, Harrison Lord Gallery, Brighouse
(2013) Light Touch, Bloc Studios, Sheffield Fringe, Sheffield
(2011) Photosensitive, One Church Street Gallery, Great Missenden
(2009) Survey, Gallery Top, Rowsley
(2006) Revelations, Chester Centre, London
Competitions, Prizes & Awards
(1998) Harmstone Research Award
(2000) Year of the Artist, Yorkshire Arts
(2004) Arts Council Award - Arbor Low show
(1999) B. A. (Hons) Fine Art
(2022) Selected for cover of “Embark” by Sean O’Brien