Manhattan Times Profile March 13 2003

Artist Stephen Beveridge’s journey has brought him from Scotland to California, across the United States, and finally to Washington heights, where he has spend the last 13 years amassing a body of internationally exhibited work.

Beveridge’s primary medium is acrylic paint on canvas, but he also sculpts and creates neon sculpture. He has been exhibited locally at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center; Inwood’s own Art in the (RING) Garden; Hardcastle Gallery; Uptown Gallery; Museum of Modern Art; Scott Pfaffman Gallery; Sara Meltzer Gallery; Port Authority of New York; and the Harlem Heights Historical Society, among many other arenas. Beveridge’s work is in private and public collections in New York, California, Seattle, Belgium and Italy, including the collection of Francesco Goretti of Art de Venezia in San Francisco, CA and Venice, Italy. He is a member of the National Acrylic Painters Association of Great Britain and his work resides in the Abstract Art Repository. His articles have appeared in Art Calendar magazine and other art publications, and he was recently interviewed for “The Tartan Apple: The Scottish in New York City from the 17th Century to the Present”, a film by Harlan Douglas Whatley.

Beveridge hitchhiked to New York in the early 1980s, and has since married and settled in Washington Heights, which he loves. “It’s Williamsburg [Brooklyn] before Williamsburg became what it is.” He was “always drawing and sculpting, but I never considered myself an artist; I was told for years that you can’t make any money as an artist, you have to have a job-and I believed that. But I am an artist and if I’m not creating my art I’m frustrated and totally at odds with the world. It wasn’t until I started creating again, allowing this flow to continue unhampered, that I was able to get myself right with the world and feel whole again.”

Asked about his formal education, Beveridge laughs: “I went to the School of Hard Knocks, I guess. I never really went to art school.” He mentions that he once audited a senior-level class at the Fashion Institute of Technology, a school well-known for its rigorous art classes. “I was told to get out and not come back to art school. The teacher said, ‘you already have a style, a vocabulary, and you already know the tools.”’

Standing in the center of his colorful apartment, which also serves as his studio, Beveridge credits powerful spiritual components with influencing his productivity. “I believe I’m created from the Creator,” he says, “and I am a co-creator. I have an urge to grow and to represent life on the planet. I see things that other people don’t often see, and I try to bring them out on the canvas and raise consciousness by allowing them to see these things on the canvas.” Commenting on the form he has chosen-abstract images-Beveridge notes, “People see things in there sometimes; your mind starts to make patterns, and the things that come out are amazing.” He points to a sign in his apartment which reads: “I’ll take care of the quantity and let Spirit take care of the quality.” Laughingly, Beveridge says, “That’s my philosophy right there. I just keep painting and don’t judge it.”

Beveridge aims to bring his art to as many people as possible, and he champions the “democratization of art.” “The art world has become secular,” he says, “and if people want to buy art, it’s just not possible; art is selling for so much money. It’s very difficult to break out of that, to make art affordable, to have it in everyone’s house. The only way to do that is to focus on alternative venues and keep the prices low.”
Beveridge leads a spiritual art group that meets once a week in the Village. “We hold each other in the light of prayer that whatever we’re doing is going to be successful. We have artists, video makers, singers. I see a lot of artists who come to the group they’re selling their art, and they’re at a point where they’re expected to do a certain kind of art and all they can think about is: Is this going to sell? Am I going to get a show” the whole joy of art is robbed from them.”

Beveridge is also a gifted website designer, but has recently decided to focus more intently on his painting. “Web design has taken away from my painting so much,” he says. “I have a creative drive in me that if it doesn’t come out, I get screwed up! I have to keep painting. I wasn’t really painting as much as I wanted to (while working on other projects). I wasn’t whole.”

Beveridge is currently working with long-time collaborator and local artist David Ferrando; they are planning an exhibition at the Russ Berrie Medical Science pavilion at 168th Street and Broadway on November 1, 2003. For more information on this and other exhibitions, log onto www.scotstyle.com. and artgrows.com