For many who do not fit the conventional standards of size, moving through daily life involves constant encounters with societal expectations. These can come in the form of media images, fashion trends, and even everyday interactions that favor or idealize a thinner body type. The pressure to conform can be intense and often painful.

  
In this challenging landscape, “Grace Under Pressure” symbolizes extraordinary strength and elegance. This grace is an active reclaiming of space and identity.

  

Grace Under Pressure 

My starting point for the imagery come from my fascination with ancient Pict rock carvings. After studying the rock formations, I started explore the idea of what would be the left standing after our civilisation has disappeared. After much thought I used abstract shapes found in graffiti, as I believe once we have all gone, those expressions of vandalism will be all that is left.

This print is a result of months of experimenting with fellow printmaker Nick Christie.

Risograph + Elctro-etching experimental prints

A piece in my Broken series

  
I’m thinking about broken in both the physical and emotional sense. We all carry things on the surface—scars, weight, features we struggle with. And then there’s what can’t be seen—the emotional stuff: fear, trauma and shame. Society tells us to hide those things, to smooth them over. But AnyBody Sculpture is about doing the opposite. It’s about embracing imperfection and making it art.

  
What do you think? Can something broken still be beautiful?

Untitled 

A study in tension and form, Eleanorr twists with quiet power. Her weight shifts, yet she remains grounded—assertive in her stance, unapologetic in her flesh. The rough texture resists polish, honouring the body’s truth in gesture and mass.

  

Eleanor

Stump #192 (Ghost) is a Gelliplate Monoprint on Daley Rowney Heavyweight Cartridge 220 gsm

My neighborhood Trees from the Tree Portraits Series expanded to include dead/dying trees in nearby Wanstead Park, & from Dartmouth (where I now Reside); The Trees in Gallants Bower, opposite my Studio, are part of my current group of study for The Tree Portraits series.

Monoprints from the latter months of 2020 were also further informed by the following literature; ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben, ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’ by David Wallace-Wells, ‘Gaia’ by James Lovelock, & Merlin Sheldrakes’s amazing ‘Entangled Life’, which expand on the relationship of Trees with Fungi (and other fascinating endosymbiotic relationships, such as Lichens.). The latter in particular led me to start using a 2nd printed image from the original Monoprint (the ghost print) & then printing over these using handcut stencils made of old offcuts of TruGrain (around the original outline of the Stump) with translucent White/Creams with Gloss extender. the ink on this print would then behave/look like the fungal mycelia reaching throughout any given Tree

Stump #192 (Ghost)

Gelliplate Monoprint on Daley Rowney Heavyweight Cartridge 220 gsm, 36cm x 30cm

The Trees in Gallants Bower, opposite my Studio in Dartmouth, are part of my current group of study for The Tree Portraits series. This is home to a number of large Oak, Beech, Hornbeam & Ash Trees.


My Monoprints from the latter months of 2020 onwards were also further informed by the following literature; ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben, ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’ by David Wallace-Wells, ‘Gaia’ by James Lovelock, & Merlin Sheldrakes’s amazing ‘Entangled Life’, which expand on the relationship of Trees with Fungi (and other fascinating endosymbiotic relationships, such as Lichens.).

The latter in particular led me to start using a 2nd printed image from the original Monoprint (the ghost print), & then printing over these using handcut stencils made of biodegradable polyfilm (around the original outline of the Stump) with translucent White/Creams with Gloss extender. the ink on this print would then behave/look like the fungal mycelia reaching throughout any given Tree.

Stump #214 (Ghost)

Gelliplate Monoprint on Daley Rowney Heavyweight Cartridge 220 gsm, 36cm x 30cm

Stump #117 is from an ongoing Series of over 200 Monoprints called the Tree Portraits, completed in early Summer, during verdant times!

London’s Pollarded Street Trees (predominantly Lime & Plane, chosen for their resilience to pollution) have recently become something of a multi-valent representation of so many things we do/don’t know about Ecology to me; & Nature’s Real place in our world.​
​
Their appearance defines an ongoing relationship with Man; indeed, many of them have a cartoon human appearance, with distinct heads, arms & bodies; and because of this back & forth, dynamic process of growth & removal over time the Trees seem to dance in a particular direction, as they struggle (vainly) to grow bigger, both outwards & upwards. They seem to me like huge Bonsai.​
​
There are wonderful areas where growth & weight make the Trees bulge & the bark appears more like a liquid, flowing down around the younger pollarded areas with gravity. This can only really be appreciated from the base, looking straight up.​

Stump #117

‘Little Dartmouth Pine I’ is a mixed media print of one of the gorgeous Monterrey Pines heading West from Little Dartmouth Farm, just up from the South West Coast Path.

This is the first of a series local Pines I’ve created, which in turn become part of the 250+ Prints which make up the current Tree Portraits series.

This was achieved with 95%ish all Gelli Arts – Gel Printing Plate Monoprints, with minor Acrylic embellishments towards the end. Accurate registration here was achieved by using marker pen on the reverse of the Plates when positioned on the Print, prior to working on & printing details for each section.

The main ‘skeleton’ of the Tree was done using a handcut stencil, & this pretty much took up half of the work time-wise. 
The South Devon region gives off a distinctly Mediterranean vibe when the weather is being kind, & I've tried to reflect this here!

Little Dartmouth Pine 1

'The Tree Portraits I' is a monoprint collage is taken from a Series of over 250 Monoprints done from early 2020 until the present day

London’s Pollarded Street Trees (predominantly Lime & Plane, chosen for their resilience to pollution) become something of a multi-valent representation 
of so many things we no longer know about Ecology to me; & Nature’s Real place in our world.

Their appearance defines an ongoing relationship with Man: Indeed, many of them have a cartoon, anthropomorphic appearance, with distinct heads, 
arms & bodies; and because of this back & forth, dynamic process of growth & removal over time the Trees seem to dance in a particular direction, as they struggle (vainly) to grow bigger, both outwards & upwards. 
They seem to me like huge Bonsai.

There’s a certain rhythm to doing these Trees in such volume – I tried to represent every tree in my surrounding Streets – the repetition of shapes, forms, movement & texture reminds me of a cruder form of Chinese Sung painting, 
where Artists would spend years representing birds, flowers & landscapes thousands of times, until the process takes over & that Subject metamorphoses, & almost becomes something else.

Here, with 'The Tree Portraits I', they now represent our broken relationship with Nature, and the ongoing encroachment in the name of Progress, 
particularly in relation to the destruction associated with the HS2 Rail Project here in the UK

'The Tree Portraits I' became the pivotal moment in my transition from using Silkscreen to Gelliplate Monoprints, 
where I felt I'd begun to master a technique, begun to own the subject matter in a very real way, & also present it in a way that does such a monumentally important topic some Justice.

The Tree Portraits Series is a celebration of the Trees’ struggle, & indeed all of Nature’s struggle.
'The Tree Portraits I' was exhibited at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (Online Edition) 2020 & 'New Era' Virtual Exhibition from Art Number 23 Athens/London 2020-21





The Tree Portraits 1

"Syrian Brown Bear" by Michael Stewart and posted February 27, 2016.

Contact work:
Email: michaelstewart9202@gmail.com

- Don't use my photos for commercial services!
Copyright © 2016 By Michael Stewart

Syrian brown bear

I designed a series of events for Cobalt Studios, Newcastle, UK

Fresh events for cobalt studios

Experimental background visuals made for Cobalt Studios, Newcastle, England. Developing a still unnamed animation/ moving technique that I first used during the making of this video. 

Experimental background visuals

This is my most recent showreel, displaying my most recent moving image and animation work

George W Stewrt

This project is documents graphically my experience of the Covid-19 pandemics of 2020. 

Covid Chronicles 

Project that plays with lighting techniques on an object and mashup of collected sound.

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