Stephen Todd on the Cover of Embark by Sean O’Brien

I dream of how, when we are gone, the city turns 
to introspection, seeking themes and patterns 
from innumerable instances. Where to begin?

Poet Sean O’Brien’s latest poetry collection has just been published by Pan Macmillan, featuring a painting by Stephen Todd on its cover. It’s the two artists’ shared history with the Humber estuary that led Sean O’Brien to choose it: the poet grew up in Hull, near to the estuary; for the Sheffield-based painter that water is a major source of inspiration for his land and seascapes. 

As he turns 70 the long-standing figure in British letters, winner of the Forward and T.S. Eliot poetry prizes, has produced a collection that “reminds us of the enduring consolations of love, of friendship, of the freedoms and possible futures still afforded by the imagination.”

Through layering marks, colours and forms using gouache, Indian ink, pastels and graphite Stephen Todd captures the superimpositions of history and its haunting spectres. He’ll weave the grandeur of Greek mythology into his immediate, instinctual perception of the Humber estuary. Compressing time zones and contrasting distances, as a painter he makes leaps of imagination that are often stunted in today’s fast-paced, technologically filtered world. 

Visit the artist’s gallery page to see his available work for sale.