SCOTTISH artist Steve Johnson makes a personal appearance at York Castle Galleries, Coppergate Centre, York, on Sunday, April 24 from noon to 3pm.

Born in Glasgow in 1956, he grew up in Dumfries and in 1973 he was offered a placement at Carlisle College.

During the second year, he opted for a change in medium, preferring photography to painting.

"I found black and white formats extremely inspiring and exciting to work with, seeing myself as an artist but utilising a camera rather than paint," he recalls.

On leaving college he moved to London, where he did freelance work for teen magazines, leading to commissions for Vogue in 1977.

His work featured in the Pink Punk Book, published in 1978, and two years later this style of photo launched the first issue of i-D magazine, where he worked for the next few years.

However, by 1991 photography no longer inspired him, and so Steve started painting seriously again, concentrating once more on the medium that he had originally embraced.

"It was then that something clicked and I have not looked back since.

"Painting is my life," he says.

Using a mixture of oil and acrylic on the same canvas, he likes to experiment and play with colour to draw as much emotional response from the image as possible.

The backgrounds are always in acrylic, while his figures are always in oil.

"This is so the oil figure can be worked on in a way that will make it stand out from the background," he explains. Steve is always drawn to figures that create a great shape, rather than seeking to depict someone or somewhere in particular.

"The aim is to portray an essence and emotion rather than a well defined and precise person or location, as I am not interested in set narrative pieces," he says.

Updated: 14:58 Thursday, April 21, 2005