Sometimes river
A part-time guide for horseback and four-wheel-drive adventures, Steve Baird paints with his heart in the landscape, inspired by the impact of water.
"I'm always fascinated by how the whole landscape's been shaped by water," artist Steve Baird says. "The water's absent, but the mark of water is there." Whether he works in paint, pastels, etchings, or in his travel diaries, the Australian landscape is ever-present. "Absolute awe, fascination, and respect for the power of the natural world" are what inspires Steve. It's an awe that struck, him at an early age.
Steve's father was determined that his children would have a good understanding of the Australian bush, "So virtually every weekend we'd pack up and head out," Steve says. His parents took their children hunting for fossils, panning for hold, looking for trout, and exploring old homesteads. These trips incubated a passion for landscapes, and for recognising the stories inerrant in nature.
“My father always taught me, don't worry about tracks and roads,” Steve stays. "If you are walking through the bush always pay attention to where the rivers are - and the ridges - and you'll never be lost." This advice guides Steve's painterly eye, and has nurtured an ability to see things that many people don't. He says he's interested in cause and effect. "Water is one of the single most important elements in forming landscapes (besides geological upheavals) - it's just fascinating to watch," he says.
The landscape and its stories are essential to what inspires Steve, but what gives it more power and interest is when it then involves a human context (whether it is aboriginal or more modern European settlement in Australia) and how we have learned to adapt to [what artist Clifton Pugh called] the 'sometimes river'," Steve says. His images often place cultural reference within the landscape, be they references to formal or oral histories. His current projects consider a story from the 1880's about Ernest Gile's horse, 'Fair Maid of Perth', and where it last drank in the Simpson Desert.
Steve has always kept travel diaries - large hard covered tomes, filled with sketches notes, photos, and drawings that aim to evoke the sense of the place long after he has left it. In reading from one diary he reveals his perspective. "The great emptiness is full, full of patterns and textures, full of gentle rolling plains, like an easy sea rolling in Bass Straight.” He's describing a generally arid place, the Nullarbor Plain.
Nurturing a love of nature, wasn't the only influence Steve's parents had on his artistic life. Readily available in his childhood home was an old, blank bank ledger and a range of coloured pencils. “I can remember feeling really excited and cosy about the notion of dragging the book out on a wet Sunday morning [to draw] in the midwinter," he says.
Steve hasn't formerly trained as an artist (though he did study architecture for a few years). He calls upon the work of different artists (mostly Australian) to help him resolve various painterly challenges. In this way he is influenced figuratively. Yet there has been more direct influence too. His mother, father, brothers and sister all pursued the arts (and continue to do so). Australian artists Fred Williams, and Leonard French were among the family's friends. A lot of my parents friends' were artists so it was normal to visit a family where the bread winner was an artist" Steve says. “We grew up in a house hold where art wasn't pretentious or anything, but it was valued, it was a part of life.”
Steve's studio and home are in the high country, (Tawonga, Vic) at the feet of mounts Beauty and Bogong, and the Alpine National Park. Here Steve, his wife Kath, and sons Lin and Clay run a horse tour enterprise, Bogong Horseback Adventures. In the off-season Steve works as an expedition leader and guide, conducting four-wheel-drive tours of remote outback locations. the demands of running a business and raising a family have often pulled Steve away from his painting.
“There's a mixture of regret and joy at that,” he says noting creative freedoms that a part-time career has brought. “I've been prepared to push the art aside sometimes,but its always nagging me when I'm not doing it.” Regardless of the fact that Steve's painting has been a sometimes pursuit, his work has found local recognition through shortlists for exhibitions and prizes. He's also found buyers from across the globe.
Hannah and Russel Kully are US-based patrons of the arts who have bought Steve's work. They met him while they were on tour of the outback. “He sketched right off the back of his van in pastels," Hannah says. They later went to his studio and purchased several works which now hang in their California home. “I think Steve knows how to capture the essence of what he's doing,” she says. “He encapsulates for me the feeling of what it looks like. He doesn't copy nature but his interpretation is inspiring.”
Of the world around him, Steve says, “I'm very aware of what is going on and the seasons and the ephemeral rivers that come and go, and times of drought, and times of plenty.” As long as these stories of nature and our culture are there, Steve will continue to paint them. “Stories are a really important way to pass on history and culture, and feelings of place.”
Ronalds, Pepi: “Sometimes river”, Outback magazine, issue 90, Aug/Sep 2013, p. 100-101
"I'm always fascinated by how the whole landscape's been shaped by water," artist Steve Baird says. "The water's absent, but the mark of water is there." Whether he works in paint, pastels, etchings, or in his travel diaries, the Australian landscape is ever-present. "Absolute awe, fascination, and respect for the power of the natural world" are what inspires Steve. It's an awe that struck, him at an early age.
Steve's father was determined that his children would have a good understanding of the Australian bush, "So virtually every weekend we'd pack up and head out," Steve says. His parents took their children hunting for fossils, panning for hold, looking for trout, and exploring old homesteads. These trips incubated a passion for landscapes, and for recognising the stories inerrant in nature.
“My father always taught me, don't worry about tracks and roads,” Steve stays. "If you are walking through the bush always pay attention to where the rivers are - and the ridges - and you'll never be lost." This advice guides Steve's painterly eye, and has nurtured an ability to see things that many people don't. He says he's interested in cause and effect. "Water is one of the single most important elements in forming landscapes (besides geological upheavals) - it's just fascinating to watch," he says.
The landscape and its stories are essential to what inspires Steve, but what gives it more power and interest is when it then involves a human context (whether it is aboriginal or more modern European settlement in Australia) and how we have learned to adapt to [what artist Clifton Pugh called] the 'sometimes river'," Steve says. His images often place cultural reference within the landscape, be they references to formal or oral histories. His current projects consider a story from the 1880's about Ernest Gile's horse, 'Fair Maid of Perth', and where it last drank in the Simpson Desert.
Steve has always kept travel diaries - large hard covered tomes, filled with sketches notes, photos, and drawings that aim to evoke the sense of the place long after he has left it. In reading from one diary he reveals his perspective. "The great emptiness is full, full of patterns and textures, full of gentle rolling plains, like an easy sea rolling in Bass Straight.” He's describing a generally arid place, the Nullarbor Plain.
Nurturing a love of nature, wasn't the only influence Steve's parents had on his artistic life. Readily available in his childhood home was an old, blank bank ledger and a range of coloured pencils. “I can remember feeling really excited and cosy about the notion of dragging the book out on a wet Sunday morning [to draw] in the midwinter," he says.
Steve hasn't formerly trained as an artist (though he did study architecture for a few years). He calls upon the work of different artists (mostly Australian) to help him resolve various painterly challenges. In this way he is influenced figuratively. Yet there has been more direct influence too. His mother, father, brothers and sister all pursued the arts (and continue to do so). Australian artists Fred Williams, and Leonard French were among the family's friends. A lot of my parents friends' were artists so it was normal to visit a family where the bread winner was an artist" Steve says. “We grew up in a house hold where art wasn't pretentious or anything, but it was valued, it was a part of life.”
Steve's studio and home are in the high country, (Tawonga, Vic) at the feet of mounts Beauty and Bogong, and the Alpine National Park. Here Steve, his wife Kath, and sons Lin and Clay run a horse tour enterprise, Bogong Horseback Adventures. In the off-season Steve works as an expedition leader and guide, conducting four-wheel-drive tours of remote outback locations. the demands of running a business and raising a family have often pulled Steve away from his painting.
“There's a mixture of regret and joy at that,” he says noting creative freedoms that a part-time career has brought. “I've been prepared to push the art aside sometimes,but its always nagging me when I'm not doing it.” Regardless of the fact that Steve's painting has been a sometimes pursuit, his work has found local recognition through shortlists for exhibitions and prizes. He's also found buyers from across the globe.
Hannah and Russel Kully are US-based patrons of the arts who have bought Steve's work. They met him while they were on tour of the outback. “He sketched right off the back of his van in pastels," Hannah says. They later went to his studio and purchased several works which now hang in their California home. “I think Steve knows how to capture the essence of what he's doing,” she says. “He encapsulates for me the feeling of what it looks like. He doesn't copy nature but his interpretation is inspiring.”
Of the world around him, Steve says, “I'm very aware of what is going on and the seasons and the ephemeral rivers that come and go, and times of drought, and times of plenty.” As long as these stories of nature and our culture are there, Steve will continue to paint them. “Stories are a really important way to pass on history and culture, and feelings of place.”
Ronalds, Pepi: “Sometimes river”, Outback magazine, issue 90, Aug/Sep 2013, p. 100-101