Kenneth Steel
Kenneth Steel (RBA, SGA 1906-1970)
Kenneth Steel was born on 9th July 1906 , the second son of George Thomas Steel , a painter and silver engraver living in Sheffield . At the age of twelve Steel won an art scholarship and went on to study at Sheffield College of Art under Anthony Betts.
He rose to fame when the dealer Connell's began publishing his line engraving and drypoint prints in 1932 which gained immediate critical acclaim. Durham , published in 1935 is arguably his masterpiece in this medium. In 1937 Steel had his first one man show of Watercolours of London at the Fine Arts Society, London and that summer he has a lengthy stay sketching in Dublin. In October of 1938 Steel was given his second one man show at the Victor Waddington Galleries, 28 South Anne Street, Dublin showing forty five Watercolours of Dublin . At this time Waddington also published five Steel line engravings with drypoint limited edition prints of Dublin. During the 1930's he exhibited regularly at the Royal Hibernian Society annual exhibitions in the city.
After the War Steel developed a career as a commercial artist and achieved a prolific output of artwork for British Railways designing over 40 for posters for them. He produced a series of carriage prints for LNER Post War, LMR Railway Architecture, Scottish Region series. He also turned to oil painting producing colourful palette knife paintings of Mediterranean scenes for the dealers Frost & Reed of Bristol who issued mass market colour collotype prints of some of them . Art work was also supplied to J, Arthur Dixon for postcards & greetings cards, Davey United for promotional brochures and later Bass Carrington brewery for calendars.
He was taught himself to execute architectural perspective drawings and was employed by a number of Sheffield architects including Husband & Co, Steel drew the first images of Jodrell Bank for Bernard Lovell !
Steel lost his pregnant first wife in the Sheffield blitz of December 1940, also most of his sketchbooks and artwork were destroyed. He re-married in 1953 and from 1956 until his death on 7th July 1970 he lived and worked at 12,Blackbrook Drive, Lodge Moor Sheffield, sometimes giving art lessons in his studio . After the War he travelled widely to Mediterranean Europe but also visited and painted in Jamaica and New York.
c. Edward Yardley
