ARTIST’S STATEMENT

A life long love of ceramics and a strong desire to reinterpret the natural world has made the visual arts the primary focus of my professional life.  My early influence were Van Gogh, Henry Moore, Brancusi, Giacometti and Picasso among others, but I have always striven to find my own voice and have concentrated on developing a unique style.  My goal is to find harmonious compositions in the natural world and translate them into my own visual dialect which lies somewhere between realism and abstraction.

Some of my pieces are strictly conceptual, but most are based on photographs I’ve taken.  I usually work straight from the photograph and sketch directly onto a clay slab.  Once the rough sketch is done I carve down and rework the surfaces as the clay slowly dries over a period of several weeks.  After the bisque firing I apply 3 to 5 coats of low-fire glazes to the piece, fire it a second time and will occasionally add wood, metal or additional ceramic pieces to finish the sculpture.  Most pieces are mounted on stained and framed plywood and hang with a standard picture hanger.

BIOGRAPHY

Steve Portteus was born and raised in Western Washington State where he grew up with a love of the mountains and coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest.  He received a BA in Fine Arts from Western Washington University in 1980 and a second BA in Cinematography along with the Merit of Excellence Award from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California in 1983. While attending WWU he spent the year of 1978 studying German at the Goethe Institute in Radolfzell, Germany then traveled and worked his way around Western Europe. After a few years working in photography and model making for films in Los Angeles in the 1980′s Steve returned to Seattle.  While working for the family music distribution company he began sculpting ceramic masks and wall sculptures and began showing his work in galleries and restaurants in the Seattle area.  He began Kiln House Sculpture in the early 1990′s after demand for commissioned animal masks increased. He began focusing primarily on ceramic landscape reliefs in 2007 and has recently participated in juried art events for the Tacoma Art Museum, Tidefest Art Fair and the Puget Sound Blood Center.  In the past twenty years he has shown his work in galleries, professional offices and restaurants in the Northwest and California.  Steve currently lives with his wife and four children on Fox Island, Washington and works out of his home studio.