Vesper – Exhibition Launch

Join us at the Station for the launch of Vesper, a new exhibition by artist Gary Steer.

Opening on Thursday 8 October, Vesper brings together a collection of figurative paintings exploring people, colour and fleeting everyday moments through instinctive lines and expressive marks.

Come along to the launch, meet Gary and be among the first to see the new collection.

Thursday 8 October | 7–9pm | Free entry
Kitchen open until 8.30pm
2-for-1 selected cocktails until 9pm

Vesper will be on display at Station South from 8 October until 8 November.

About the exhibition

“My fifth exhibition entitled – Vesper – brings together a collection of figurative paintings rooted in the immediacy of drawing and the artist’s fascination with people. I approach painting the figures with a sense of spontaneity, allowing each painting to develop through fluid lines, expressive marks and an instinctive response to my subjects.

The paintings begin with drawing. Rather than treating the painted line as a preliminary stage, I allow it to remain visible and active within the finished work. My figures are constructed through bold, searching marks, with areas of paint building around and across the drawing. There is a sense of movement throughout the collection: contours shift, forms are suggested rather than completely described, and the hand of the artist remains present.

Many of the works are painted in one hit—a direct and concentrated engagement with the subject. This gives the paintings their particular energy. Decisions are made in the moment, hopefully creating a tension between observation and instinct, responding to what is happening rather than to premeditate. The resulting figures hopefully feel less like formal portraits and more like encounters: fleeting impressions of people captured through gesture, posture, expression and character.

Colour plays an equally important role. I’m interested in seasonal colour, drawing upon the changing atmosphere and palettes of the year. Warm ochres, earthy browns, deep reds and autumnal oranges sit alongside cooler blues, greens and pale tones. Rather than simply describing the season, colour becomes a means of shaping the emotional temperature of each painting.

The subjects themselves are people who have caught the artist’s attention. The subjects in the paintings have been encountered in everyday life. This gives the collection a sense of openness: the paintings are not confined to conventional portraiture but emerge from my curiosity about the people around me. Changing fashions and styles. A pose, a face, a particular attitude or moment can become the starting point for a painting.

Across the collection, there is a recurring balance between observation and abstraction. The human figure remains recognisable, but I allow it to be disrupted and reimagined through colour and mark. Limbs, clothing, furniture and surrounding spaces can merge into one another, while areas of paint are left raw, layered or deliberately unresolved. The paintings retain the immediacy of the drawing from which they originate.

This fifth exhibition represents an ongoing exploration of what can happen when drawing, colour and observation are brought together without overworking the image. My paintings celebrate the vitality of the first response—the instinctive line, the unexpected colour, the mark that cannot easily be corrected.

Ultimately, these are paintings about looking and responding: to people, to colour, to atmosphere and to the everyday moments in which a figure suddenly becomes worth painting.”