Take a brief look at my background as an artist.

I am comfortable with almost any subject matter. This stems primarily from my childhood when I would often sketch or paint family members and the environment around me. This continued to a level that allowed me to gain entry on a foundation course in art & design at Wolverhampton Polytechnic (now University). Life drawing and fine art were always my passion, however, I also enjoyed graphic design and illustration and studied this at Wolverhampton gaining a B.A (hons) degree in 1983.

I have spent all of my working life in the graphics and illustration fields, working in retail advertising, gaming and directories. In all areas of my full time employment I have been able to put my artistic and professional illustration skills to good use, particularly during many years in the gaming sector, but my passion has always been oil painting.The favoured subject is portraiture and whilst I have no difficulty working from life I now prefer to take my own photographs of subjects to work from and often create scenes from various references. This enables the best use of my available time.

My exhibition debut resulted in overall first prize at the Staffordshire Open Art Exhibition, Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford, between May and June 2009.

1st Prize Winner at

The Staffordshire Open Art Exhibition,

Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford 2009

All images are copyright of Stephen Cooper 2010