In Conversation with Local Artists: Steve Sheasby
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Our current series on the Selly Manor Museum blog involves interviewing artists from Bournville, Birmingham and the surrounding areas, finding out about their creative processes and inspirations, their views on Bournville and its community, and their upcoming projects and exhibitions. Selly Manor is keen to spotlight local artists who keep our community a vibrant and dynamic place to live.
Next up is local artist Steve Sheasby, who captures his sitters emotions and passions through his incredible portraits.
Artist Steve Sheasby
1: Could you tell us a little about yourself and your work as an artist?
"I am a 78 year old Brummie, born in Aston and raised for my first 3 years of life in a back to back terraced house, or a two up and two down as they used to call them. We moved to Kingstanding when I was 4, an area I spent the next 40 years living there (plus Great Barr). I left school at 15 and desperately wanted to go to art college but my father being salt of the earth said no you've got to get a "proper job"! So I entered electronic engineering via an apprenticeship with GKN. Upon completion of my apprenticeship I had various jobs, including 18 months working in Limerick, southern Ireland, and 4 years working at Cadburys in Bournville, before I started a career in IT. I had a very successful career in IT Service management before retiring in 2014.
I met my second wife in 2001 who happened to work at Stourbridge college, so when I mentioned my latent ambition to become an artist, she bought me a course of evening classes studying watercolour painting, something I pursued for 4 years. I started producing work around this time mostly watercolour landscapes. However, I wasn't generally happy with the work I was creating, so upon retirement in 2014 I went back to college and took a Foundation course in Art and Design, followed up by a HND in Fine art, completing my studies with a Merit in 2020. I have created a large body of work over this period mostly in Oils and Acrylics but in recent years my main interest has been to develop my portraiture which is now my primary interest. I have exhibited work around the Midlands at various galleries, produced a large number of commissions, and sold some of my work although not as many as I'd like. I have taken part in Sky Arts Landscape artist of the year 5 times as a wildcard entry, and for the last 4 years I have been working with the Foundry artist group in Bewdley where we explore a wide range of techniques and ideas for new work."
'Stephen' by Steve Sheasby
2: How does Bournville (and/or the surrounding areas) inspire your work?
"I think Birmingham as a whole has been instrumental in stimulating my ideas around people and life. As you can imagine a man of my age hasn't escaped the trials and tribulations that life presents, so much of my work tries to capture life's emotions, passions, and trials. My time working in Bournville is a part of this heritage."
3: Bournville is surrounded by both green space and city scape - how do each of these influence your work?
"As an artist whose current interest is primarily in people and emotions, green spaces and cityscapes do not figure large in my fields of influence, however the people that occupy them do, so it's very true to say that the environments that people live in have a huge impact on their respective lives, i.e. where they work, how they socialise, and the daily pressures and joys that a specific environment can present them with."
'Sir Len' by Steve Sheasby
4: Is there a particular piece of local history or heritage that you find yourself drawn to? Why do you think that is?
"As a person who has lived in and around Birmingham for most of my 78 years, I have seen a huge change in the city's industrial, social, and cultural history. When I was young Birmingham was at its peak in terms of significant manufacturing industries, e.g. Austin Rover. Dunlop, GKN, IMI, and many many more, these industries being responsible for most of the jobs available at the time, however this has all gone now being replaced by lower paid jobs in the service industries. This change in career opportunities has had a huge impact on how people live their lives today and how they provide themselves with the basics such as housing etc.
This together with significant influxes of people with different cultures has dramatically changed the face of the city, some elements for good others not so. So I think these factors put together influence my work and how I try to interpret people's trials and tribulations."
5: Why do you think art is important to the local community?
"I think art in the community is so important, but sadly largely missing in Birmingham. It is a constant source of frustration for me as to how few opportunities there are for artists to promote and develop their work in the city, and yet it is such a vital factor in evolving and interpreting societies character and appreciation of different ideas and cultures."
'Fisherman' by Steve Sheasby
6: How do you feel your art connects with the people of Bournville/Birmingham? Or how do the people of Bournville/Birmingham connect with your work?
"Tough one to answer this, however during my time with the Foundry artist group I have produced a number of industrial landscapes many of which reflect the decline and decay that Birmingham industries have experienced. Another of my life's passions has been music, being a teenager in the sixties being largely responsible for this, so a lot of my portraiture has been related to rock stars from this era. I have exhibited some of this work at the O bar on Broad Street, which was very well received by their clientele."
'Portrait of a lonely man' by Steve Sheasby
7: Do you have a favourite artwork that you've created that you could talk us through?
"My favourite artwork I've produced over the years has probably been a very large collage I created as my final piece during my foundation course. The piece is called 'Performance' and was an attempt by me to capture the energy and passion of musical performance and dance.
It's 1 metre squared and is created on a large wooden frame. It consists of elements of my work, i.e David Bowies eyes, Jimi Hendrix's hands, plus pieces taken from live TV performances such as Later with Jules Holland. The different elements were printed out on heavy paper on squares that were precisely the same size as 45 rpm record sleeve and affixed to the surface of the frame. After the composition was affixed, I took words from two of my all-time favourite songs, Heroes by Bowie and John Lennon's Imagine, creating them in the same typeface that was used on their album covers. Once this process was completed, I applied multiple coats of gloss varnish to create a surface texture that replicated the feel of an album cover."
'Performance' by Steve Sheasby
8: What's next for you - do you have any upcoming projects or exhibitions that you're excited about?
"In terms of what is next for me? I'm continuing my work with the Foundry artist group, specifically in establishing a body of work that captures the images of today's society and the challenges and emotions that are present within it. This will be achieved by further development of my portraiture and a greater emphasis on promoting my work, something that I am pretty bad at!"
Our thanks to Steve for chatting to us about how art has become such an important part of his life, and the individuals that inspired him to create his greatly admired portraits. To see more of Steve's work, head to his Instagram page @steve.sheasby
Written by Niamh Reid, Museums Assistant