Steve Whitehead

The landscape painter Steve Whitehead was born in Coventry, England in 1960 and studied at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, with David Tinker, graduating with an MA in the mid-1980s, before continuing his studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Whitehead's art is sometimes described as a form of Photorealism, although according to the art critic Michael Paraskos it is more like a Poetic Realism, as Whitehead does not simply reproduce photographs in paint, but creates composite images, drawing on many photographs and historic art images. In particular Whitehead is influenced by the landscape traditions of northern European romantics, such as Caspar David Friedrich, and the realism of the Biedermeier realist painters.

He has twice won the Wales Open and has also been a prizewinner in Manchester Academy and Hunting Art Prizes exhibitions. His paintings are held in the permanent collection of the Contemporary Art Society of Wales. He previously taught Fine Art at the University of Hull and is a regular visiting artist at the Cyprus College of Art. He is represented by the Plus One Gallery in London and is the subject of a book entitled 'Steve Whitehead', by Michael Paraskos (London: Orage Press, 2008).