Stephen McCurdy
There seem to be two broad strands in my painting. One is figurative, human, and often theatrical. The other is more abstract.
Time in a painting works differently from the flow of time in drama and music. It is clearly not linear, without beginnings or ends. I do not fully understand it.
Exhibition is an inadequate, even misleading term. So is show, though it does imply something is happening that looks for a fertile suspension of disbelief. Maybe better to say 'this is a fragment of a world to wander about in, to inhabit for a time, for those who are willing.' Not so much to look at, but to look into. Perhaps even to stand inside for a moment, and look out.'
Stephen McCurdy was born in Roxburgh, Central Otago, in 1949.
In the late sixties he studied music and cello at Canterbury University. He wrote a thesis on atonal motivic analysis of Schoenberg's Op 16 Pieces for Orchestra which he didn't submit.
He subsequently worked for thirty years as a composer, music producer and director and occasional songwriter for theatre, television and film.
He began painting seriously in 1996, and has only occasionally exhibited.