Line and colour have long been the base of Steve Roper’s art. He tends to draw with line, very rarely with tone. Steve’s favourite artists, like Bruce Petty, often do the same in focusing on lines rather than tone.
Works features drawings on paper in a variety of media including pencil, crayons, ink, and watercolour. They are not necessarily drawings of things; they are abstract works but may evoke subjects. As clay dries, it hardens, and each stage creates a different engagement with the drawing process.
This type of line drawing plays on Steve’s mind – his drawings are likely to be affected by Parkinson’s, a condition he has had for some time. He describes this as a ‘shrinking’ condition: “You keep making smaller movements, but they look perfectly fine to you”.
In painting, line gives way to masses of colour. At school, Steve was drawn to Matisse’s colour and De Kooning’s techniques, finding their directness very appealing. His take on these techniques is to build up layers of colour and line, where the more these lines build, the more they begin to disintegrate into shapes.
For Steve, the appeal of abstract art, when it works, is that it gives anyone the opportunity to experience it and work out what they make of it.
About the Artist
Steve Roper studied architecture, art and teaching in Sydney. He came to Canberra in 1978, and since then he has been teaching and making art. Throughout this time, he has painted a variety of subjects, including interiors, landscape and cartoons. More recently, he has taken up ceramics as well. Steve has won various awards in ceramics and painting.
Images
From Little Things Big Things Go (detail) by Steve Roper.
Deluge (detail) by Steve Roper.
Shaken Not Stirred (detail) by Steve Roper.
Set the controls for the heart of the sun (detail) by Steve Roper.
Beast (detail) by Steve Roper.
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