Steve Walker; My men

By Doris Blanchet Vasiloff, Parcours 2001

Steve Walker originally hails from the Toronto area. He bears a physical resemblance to his paintings: good looking and big. Active as a painter for ten years, he has become all the rage, represented by galleries in Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles and Key West. His canvasses sell easily, even though. his subject matter is sometimes controversial. Walker is driven by a social need to display his gay masculinity and to depict a particular kind of gay culture: his own. He does not lean towards eroticism, although his paintings are imprinted with sensuality and do sometimes arouse desire. The artist admits that the style " of his work is somewhat commercial, some-what fashionable, that his paintings sometimes I' even lack originality. « Yes," he responds amiably, "there are gay cliches in my work because that trivial side exists and represents the reality of what I live, of my world. My guys... they're good-looking, young, they wear sexy t-shirts from the fifties and boots. Yes, the Drag Queen seated at the bar in Boys Night Out does allude to Barbara Streisand, a gay idol. They are cliches, but they're real! I am often asked why I don't paint ordinary men or aging men. The answer is simple: that's not the reality I choose to paint. When I'm older those subjects may mean more to me, but for the moment I feel closer to youth."

The painter invites us to take a closer look at gay conjugal life. He tries to show us that gay life has its uncertainties, its tenderness and its own spirituality. His large-format paintings are completely enveloped in this tenderness. We feel it in the gesture of adjusting a tie, in the hand holding a brush, or in a melancholy gaze. Even seen from the back, his personages are expressive. The casual grace of ample folds of fabric allows Walker to bring out emotion. His painstaking approach to drapery is derived from his admiration for neo-classical, Caravaggist, Renaissance painters. His technique may be classical, but his subject matter is completely contemporary. He is wary of photo-realism. His work is more stylized realism, not, according to Walker, in the manner of Colville as many suggest, but closer to Kent Derby. Walker considers his subject, which is always figurative, first. everything is calculated. He organizes his canvass and elaborates his spatial composition with great precision. Next, he brings models into his studio and photographs them in predetermined poses. He scribbles sketches, takes photographs in bars and other public places and then, after collecting all the necessary material, finally places his elements on canvass, according to his initial plan.

Walker paints the same way other people create stained glass almost religiously. He uses only brushes, about forty, ranging from the tiniest to the largest. All is detail and meticulousness. Strands of head and body hair, painted one by one, seem like the work of some slightly maniacal surgeon. But Walker's excess is limited to his obsession with detail and anecdote. His palette of colors is gentle, relying on often-used shades of grey, turquoise and orange. Light is one of the main qualities of his paintings. It resides in the work, vibrant and tranquil.

One day Walker will surely to maybe paint street scenes... other people's lives. "But," the artist hastens to add, "always with the Walker touch!"