Stephen Bradbury (1954–present) is an illustrator and painter.
Stephen Bradbury was born in Ardwick, Manchester, England, in 1954. The eldest of three sons to William and Doreen Bradbury. The family moved from Ardwick to Marple, Cheshire in 1962. This was mainly due to Manchester Corporation's policy of demolishing tenement blocks and the old terraced housing in Ardwick and other areas of Manchester. Whole communities were moved into new housing estates, in, and around Cheshire. After attending Marple Hall Grammar School (1966–72), where he studied art under the tutelage of Keith Stephens and the renowned potter and author, Harold Powell, who wrote many books encouraging people to take up pottery,such as Beginners Book of Pottery, Blandford Press (1963), he went on to do a foundation course in art at Bolton College of Art (1972–73), winning the Robert Fairthurst Prize, before finally going on to do a degree in Textile Design at Loughborough College of Art in 1974. After leaving college, the artist moved back to the northwest of England and lived in the High Peak of Derbyshire.
It was on his journey from his home in Cheshire, as a student to Bolton College of Art everyday that initially brought alive his interest in illustration and detailed paintings.After getting off the train at Manchester Piccadilly, he would cross town to get the train from Manchester Victoria to Bolton. Often though, on route he would call into Manchester Art Gallery and look at the extensive collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.[1] This interest would show itself in several book covers later on. The King Making by Helen Hollick, Mandarin Books and The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Penguin Books, being good examples. To this day, Bradbury cites Autumn Leaves, 1856, by Sir John Everett Millais, in Manchester Art Gallery as one of his all time favourite paintings.
In 1973, Stephen Bradbury married Sue Goodricke, they have three children, Rachael, Hope and Jonathon.
In 1988, the artist moved from the Peak District to Cornwall, where he still resides.
In 1982 he was commissioned by art director, Gary Day Ellison at Pan Books to illustrate his first book cover The Many Coloured Land by Sci-Fi writer, Julian May. This was book one of The Pliocene Exile Series. Other books in the series being, The Golden Torc, The Non-born King and The Adversary. Intervention, by Julian May. 1.5 million copies sold. This was followed by the same author's The Galactic Milieu Trilogy Jack The Bodiless, Diamond Mask and Magnificat, where the author amazingly looped the story back to the start of the first book. Bradbury managed to pull off the same trick with the cover artwork too. The success of the first series of books and the distinctive artwork used on them helped catapult Bradbury's career in illustration, and in 1982, he was awarded the Pan Books, Artist of the Year award.[2] Later on he illustrated the covers for Julian May's Rampant Worlds Series. Perseus Spur, Orion's Arm and Sagitarius Whorl for Harper Collins.
For the next twenty years, Bradbury illustrated over 300 book covers, for all the major publishers in the U.K. and around the globe. Authors included, Arthur C Clarke, Sheri S Tepper, Alan Dean Foster, Barbara Hambly, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Rosamunde Pilcher, Barbara Erskine. Joanna Trollope, and many more. Mainly commissioned for his illustration and design work, his work has also appeared in galleries in the U.K. Most of his work in illustration was painted in gouache. His Garden Series paintings, became very popular and well sought after, until he pulled the plug on them. An example of this style can be seen on The Ice House by Minette Walters, Pan Books.1993. The Dodos lead the Way, 1991, sold by the Portal Gallery in London, (but available to see on sites on the web), another example in the series which makes use of a quirky garden setting, as a means to put over a serious topic such as extinction.
In 1996, Paper Tiger Books published, Reflections - The Art of Stephen Bradbury. Written by David J. Howe, The book contained well over a 150 examples of his book cover illustrations and private artwork and gave an exclusive look into his working methods and motivations.[3] This was to be one of the great ironies of his career, in being that, Paper Tiger was the first publisher he approached at the start of his career, and they duly rejected him outright. Years later, he got a phone call from them, asking whether they could do a book about him.[4]
Around 2000, at the height of his fame as an illustrator, Bradbury decided to give up doing commissioned work and decided to become a painter instead, painting large canvases in oils, He stated that in the twenty odd years or so in publishing, he could count the number of paintings, painted for himself on one hand. He wanted to express his views on the world, and, paint from the heart. As part of this process, Bradbury took a degree in The History of Modern Art, at Falmouth College of Art. He had been a lecturer in illustration at this college, and felt strange at returning as a student. After achieving a degree in the History of Modern Art, he started on a major series of paintings, which was to become, The Facets Project.
Facets, started out as Bradbury looking around at his environment, studio and the people around him, but soon became a profound look at middle-age and the problems incurred by people, mainly women in their lives and relationships.[5] There are fifty canvases in the Facets Project, and the project took five years to finish. The artwork within these works, incorporates the human figure within a combination of abstract shapes, hints of landscape, and colour . As the project progressed the canvases became larger and larger. There are still elements of Bradbury's renowned tight brushwork, but a free flowing style of brushwork and use of colour also pervades. Described as reclusive, Bradbury, in effect took time out from the media and public display of his work to make the transition from illustration to painting. Citing, Willem de Kooning as an example of an artist who broke free from commercial art to become a painter in his own right. Life drawing in recent years has become a key factor in his work and the use of models in dramatic poses has become a key element in his paintings. The paintings in this series were all painted in Oil paint.
Facets, was followed by Bradbury's next project, Voids, a series of paintings that took, as its starting point the relationship between the painter and his father William Bradbury, and looked at the ways in which each of our lives are governed by the environment we grow up in and the spaces in our lives that are filled with life choices and relationships etc. They also included elements of his longstanding Christian beliefs. As with the Facets project, the paintings for Voids were painted in oils.
In recent years, Stephen Bradbury, with the help of master craftsman and church window restorer, Tony Fletcher at Porthleven Stained Glass Studio in, Porthleven, Cornwall has been making stained glass panels based on his paintings.