The Paintings of Steve Lees

Steve Lees is sometimes called a 'painters' painter'. By this we mean that his works reveal constant exploration of his subject and his medium. Over the years he has improvised a very personal application of paint, and developed a distinctive style full of surprises and risk taking. Painters notice the exploratory nature of his images, even in small, seemingly modest still lives. What we see continues to reveal little gems within the whole. This applies even among the grandeur of his often massive vistas.

The travelling eye of the artist is revealed by that distinctive quality of risk taking and revision of solutions. As he paints everything is constantly being reviewed. Once the motif is chosen the painting takes over. It has its own demands and it is there that Lees's passion delivers his creativity. There is an appreciation of Cezanne behind his approach to the landscape. The need to make the painting work takes over once the surface begins to restructure the visual experience. His paintings are a personal journey towards a creation which he understands is in constant transition; a balance between his awareness, sensitivity and open mindedness. The fact that one can see this in the finished work is truly engaging.

There are special areas within the often complex surfaces where the experimental Lees reveals the process. During the building and the changes to the paintings that inevitably occur with all of them, you will often find what I call a 'dynamic present', an area where the risk taking is still visible at a critical moment. For example, it might be a small fragment of light, an implied reflection in some water, or the emergence of a tree's shadow from somewhere mysterious. These little moments are the intimacies that are so fascinating in Lees' work; magical codas that slip out of his unique engagement with the ever-changing image.

When you own a Lees picture, there is not just the visual representation of what he has seen in the world, you have the actual physical journey of exploration, caught inside the rectangle where he stopped. Sometimes the entire picture appears as a transcendental moment in time itself. The emanation of light from the surface of paint and the textures that reveal it, appear to be a fleeting moment in time. And yet, in this visually romantic world of his the whole seems to come from an ancient past.

Peter L. Jackson