Scottish Art: Stephanie Rew

Stephanie Rew was born in Carlisle in 1971, although she grew up in Edinburgh. She studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee. After graduating she returned to her hometown for a few years before moving to Brighton in 1996. Work took her to London in 1998 where she held the first of several successful art exhibitions before moving back to Scotland in 2002.

Stephanie Rew first became interested in drawing and painting at an early age. Drawing images from memory kept her amused through out her childhood. She enrolled at the well known Scottish Art College, Duncan of Jordanstone in 1990 and followed her passion for figurative painting ' citing Alison Watt and Jenny Saville as her inspiration at that time. As well as concentrating on life drawing and paintings she also sat in and sketched with the Dundee Repertory Dance Company during rehearsals, which started a relationship with dance and her paintings.

Stephanie Rew's primary subject matter is the female figure. Always painted with a sense of ambiguity, faces half hidden with the human form often just emerging from the darkness. The nude was a predominant motif in her work and has developed using drapery and pattern in combination with the figure. Tone and form as well as strong light and colour inspire her. Stephanie concentrates on the juxtaposition of tonality and texture whilst keeping a private, reflective mood in her art work. Recently she has also returned to her interest in dance and has been working with an aerial dancer in Edinburgh, striving to capture in oil paint, the elegance and strength to be found in this type of dance.

Talking about influences on her style and technique of painting Stephanie Rew states: 'I have always been heavily influenced by the Baroque style of oil painting and utilise a combination of Old Masters techniques with my own. The practice of glazing is important to the finished article ' creating the illusion of an inner glow to the paint. Caravaggio's trademark use of chiaroscuro and strong colour created by glazing techniques has inspired my work for the last decade'.

In addition to Red Rag Modern Art Gallery Stephanie Rew has exhibited at other leading Art Galleries. Her contemporary paintings can be found in an increasing number of private and public art collections including: P&O Ferries, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Charter plc. She won the Elizabeth Greenshields Award in 1995 and the prestigious RGI New Artist Award 2009. Each painting at Red Rag is sourced from the Stephanie Rew artist studio and like all Red Rag Scottish art and Modern art it can be shipped worldwide.

For more information or to buy Scottish modern art by Stephanie Rew:

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Modern Art: Stephanie Rew at Red Rag Gallery