Steve Tyerman’s seventh exhibition with Anthea Polson Art is again characterised by an intense involvement in the materiality of paint and his intimate engagement with the environment. In speaking of the title for his current body of work, Rhythm & Swing, Tyerman cites a letter Post-Impressionist artist Walter Sickert wrote to a friend that described the natural structure of a classical French landscape. “He used the musical terms rhythm and swing to capture how light, paths, water, trees and flowers coordinate to form an immersive visual experience,” Tyerman relays. “This description resonated with me as it aptly sums up my compositional approach. It also suggests movement, feel and tempo. Of course finished paintings are motionless objects, however they were created with motion and energy. If that can be felt in an artwork then not only is the artist’s pulse translated but that of the rendered landscape.”
Tyerman’s art communicates a visual experience beyond the strictures of traditional landscape painting. A fusion of descriptive and abstract elements, his vistas manifest a tangible presence in the immediacy of gesture and densely textured surfaces. “I am interested in a quality or effect of light that can set up certain moods and atmospheres,” he imparts.
In creating a picture Tyerman references his photographs and sketches of an interesting site. He rarely paints en plein air nowbut it still informs his method. “I paint in exactly the same way as I would outdoors, except in a more controlled environment with equipment and references at hand and not having to deal with the distractions and elements.” A composite of multiple images taken at a certain location are often present in an individual artwork. Tyerman elucidates, “I feel that this provides a more complete and immersive experience of the place rather than just a single-point, monocular perspective.”
Describing his impasto technique Tyerman informs, “I work alla prima in one continuous oil paint layer. This procedure sharpens one’s observation skills, forcing quick decisions and inhibits getting overly caught up in details. With an alla prima ‘wet on wet’ approach there’s no time for prolonged contemplation and adjustments. It’s a bit more stressful and risky, but yields results that capture the freshness of standing in front of the landscape.”
Although the paintings portray visited Gold Coast and Northern NSW locales Tyerman prefers their titles to be evocative rather than descriptive. An example of such is Between The Darkness And The Light. “I’m not sure exactly what it is about a dark and brooding sky contrasting against a sunlit foreground that I find so magnificent but it is a visual phenomenon that I can’t resist,” he muses. “All the emotional and psychological associations of light versus dark are an added bonus providing layers to the painting that invite different interpretations.” Another masterful composite rendition, As I Wended The Shores I Know, is very loosely based on the Cabarita headland and pathways leading down to the beach. “I definitely had Sickert’s rhythm and swing quote in mind while developing the composition,” Tyerman recalls. “I’ve used multiple viewpoints, angles, warped perspective and changes of scale to let the viewer choose one’s own path and discover the painting.”
The potency of Tyerman’s palette knife’s passage animates our visual sensibilities, prompting us to share in his immersive experience of a landscape’s physical and metaphorical offerings. He reiterates that being an artist enables time and opportunity to observe and engage with the world in a positive and meaningful way. His paintings accord the viewer that same connection.
JACQUELINE HOUGHTON
Originally from Sydney, the widely travelled Steve Tyerman now lives and works from his studio in the Gold Coast’s hinterland. He has participated in a great number of prestigious prizes and was awarded Second Prize in The Doyles Art Award Qld 2025. Tyerman was a Finalist in the Brisbane Portrait Prize 2023; Bluethumb Art Prize, Melbourne 2023; Doyles Art Award 2023, 2022; Semi-finalist Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, NSW 2022; Finalist Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award, Qld 2022, 2020; Percival Portrait Painting Prize, Qld 2022; Invited Finalist Tattersall’s Club Landscape Prize, Brisbane 2019, 2018; Winner of the inaugural APA Innovation Award in The Artist Revealed exhibition 2012; Commended Finalist Queensland Figurative Prize 2015; Finalist in the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007; Stan and Maureen Duke Prize 2011; Sunshine Coast Art Prize 2011; Redland Art Award 2010; Mortimore Prize 2010; Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize 2009; Highly Commended Border Art Prize 2007 and Finalist Norvill Art Prize 2006. Tyerman was Artist in Residence at The Croydon Centre for Art, Design and Technology, PLC Sydney 2008. His work is represented in the GCCG Collection and the PLC Collection, Sydney. He has Bachelor Degree (1st Class Hons, University Medal) UTS 1993-1997.
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