Meet Chichester's Only Plein Air Painter

SussexWorld

Meet Chichesters Only Plein Air Painter

Transcript

00:00 First and foremost, introduce yourself and what you do.

00:03 Okay, well it's a bit of an odd one. My actual name is Steve Wiltshire,

00:08 but there's already a very well-known artist called Steve Wiltshire.

00:12 And when the internet started up I was due to have an exhibition.

00:18 My girlfriend at the time said, "You can't do that, you're going to have to change your name."

00:22 But I was born Darren Patrick O'Malley before I was adopted,

00:26 and I've painted under the name O'Malley ever since.

00:28 It sounds more arty, doesn't it, O'Malley to Wiltshire?

00:34 So, yeah, that's who I am. I paint under O'Malley.

00:39 Nice one, nice one. And how long have you been painting for and what got you into it?

00:43 My grandfather, when I was seven years old, he was a bit of an naughty artist.

00:49 He might have done the odd little forgery, but he was a very talented artist.

00:54 And of course he got the oil paints out at the age of seven.

00:59 I mean, nowadays you probably wouldn't have kids painting with methylated spirits and raw tarp and time,

01:05 but, you know, that and lead paints, but that's what it was.

01:10 So, yeah, and I've been painting ever since, really.

01:13 Amazing. And talk to me about what you did before.

01:16 I know we're used to saying it and speaking about it off camera,

01:19 but what did you do before and how does that compare to doing something like this, really?

01:24 Well, I packed in the nine to five two years ago.

01:28 I was working in social work, a variety of different departments, working in the discharge unit at QA Hospital.

01:40 But no, I just thought, well, I've got my pension and, you know, I'm of an age, high blood pressure,

01:48 you know, smoking too much, drinking too much, you know, all the kind of normal things, high blood pressure.

01:54 And I just thought, I'll do something that I want to do.

01:57 And I'd already been doing like restaurant murals, like at Mutchos Natchos.

02:02 I did some of the artwork in there and Bulgarian place down in Bogna, 359.

02:08 I thought, you know, it's time to take a leap of faith and do become a full time artist.

02:15 I suppose the benefits of it is because I'm always on the street.

02:20 I suppose I'm like a lot of studio artists. I'm not always reliant on social media.

02:26 And I could be out and about, you know, pick up bits of work or make the odd sale.

02:31 So, yeah, and I also do replicas as well, which I don't enjoy it as much.

02:38 It feels like draughtsmanship rather than art.

02:41 I suppose people haven't got 43 million for a Monet, but they might have a few grand for me to do an exact replica.

02:49 So long as the art is passed away half, you know, a hundred years ago, I can legitimately do that.

02:55 And I sign the back of it and I use modern oil paints because nobody wants to go to prison.

03:01 Nice one, nice one. And talk to me about painting Chichester.

03:05 What do you like about painting Chichester in particular and this side of Sussex?

03:10 Well, it's the architecture. And of course, Chichester, you know, for me, I've got sizeable streets,

03:17 decent sized pavements because, you know, ultimately, you know, it's a walkway and I don't want to get in too many people's way.

03:25 But no, I love Chichester and we're very lucky.

03:28 You know, I jump on the bus and we got Midhurst just up the road.

03:31 I painted Midhurst a lot.

03:34 Now, and there's also been some lovely pubs and I'll display my work in pubs.

03:40 I don't use galleries. I have in the past.

03:45 Not anti gallery or anything like that. I love going in a gallery.

03:49 But for me, I prefer to kind of keep my prices down low.

03:56 And like a lot of artists, I'm not keen on paying loads of commission.

04:00 So, yeah, it's it's kind of worked out for me.

04:04 And I suppose I'm quite lucky. I am the only one plain air artist in this neck of the woods, you know, in Brighton and Winchester.

04:13 You know, there's other ones of me than a full time. But I'm the only one around here so far.

Category

Transcript

Recommended