Tim Steward (b.1975) trained in classical drawing and painting at Lavender Hill Studios in London and currently divides his time between North Cornwall and Oxford.
Tim’s work has always focused on specific places for long periods of time, working both on the street, in the landscape and in the elements. This outdoor working is significant to seeing and feeling the subject and in connecting with a place.
From early drawings of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, to present explorations of the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, he uses a classical methodology and wide range of materials. His work is most synonymous with black and white depictions of classical buildings in pastel and pigment. These places are often connection points or places of spiritual nourishment, and include Radcliffe Square in Oxford, the Royal Crescent in Bath, Westminster in London, and the skylines over Florence, Rome and Bath, which sit in line with his love of ‘expansive’ places.
Over the last six years his focus has encompassed a specific stretch of the North Cornwall coastline near Port Isaac. There is a deep connectedness to the wildness of this sculpted environment which goes back to his childhood. This project, like those in this past, has taken him on a journey, where through study he will see and feel things more deeply over time and make art which records this evolving process.
For several years Tim undertook drawing projects in the hospitality sector for Sabre Design, on behalf of Mitchell and Butler. Examples from this period of time can be seen at the Moat House in Alcester and the Queen and Castle in Kenilworth. From 2012-2021, he worked with Clarendon Fine Art and Whitewall Galleries, exhibiting his work around England. As well as architectural drawings, work included drawings of classical musicians and ballerinas. Over this time he had several solo shows, including Mayfair, Bath and Cheltenham.
Tim is currently represented by Darl-e and the Bear in Woodstock, Oxfordshire and Pebble Gallery in Cornwall. He has sixty of his architectural drawings on permanent display in the bedrooms of the Old Parsonage Hotel in Oxford. A further twelve of his drawings hang in Rick Stein’s restaurant in Marlborough and he continues to undertake architectural commissions both home and abroad.
His body of figurative work entitled 'Stripped Back' looks at aspects of beauty and brokenness in the context of his christian faith, and this work continues to be exhibited each year as part of the Oxford Lent Concerts in Queens College Chapel in Oxford.
Commissioned work has been undertaken for Oxford University Press, Caspian, Sanctuary Group, The Curious Group of Hotels, Exscientia, Kingsway Music, Baptist Union and Ecclesiastical, amongst others.