Stephen Mitchell

Stephen Mitchell was born and brought up in Cornwall in the 1970s and he has had a keen interest in art for as long as he can remember. After realising as a child that this was the one subject about which he was truly passionate, he decided to pursue a career in art and studied Illustration at the Southampton Institute of Arts. It was here that his painting style began to emerge. The techniques and muted tones of Degas and Walter Sickert were a major influence and have remained within his work ever since. After graduating, Stephen Mitchell returned to the south west of England and, drawing inspiration from the harbours and fishing villages surrounding him, he developed a strong interest in landscape painting and began to sell his originals in local galleries. With a desire to broaden his subject matter and a love of the landscapes and townscapes of the Mediterranean, he then embarked on a trip around France, Italy and Spain. The result of this was a series of paintings of Mediterranean scenes, from meadows of flowers in Provence to the white-washed townscapes of the Amalfi coast. This love of travel has stayed with him and brings energy and vitality to his work. In order to keep his work fresh, Stephen Mitchell is always looking out for new subjects to tackle and techniques to employ. More recently, he has been inspired by mixed media artists such as Kurt Jackson, and has been looking at ways of building up layers of texture in his work.