Welcome to Sparke.Art.Me.UK the home of a rather unique UK Artist: Stephen Sparke.

A brief history of the Artist

Born in Kenya in the heart of the African continent. Spent my formative years on a farm.

The farm was owned and run by my parents.

I remember once my parents were on their way into town in an old noisy van with me in the back. After some miles my mother turned around to see if I was all right and I was nowhere to be seen - I was missing!

I had fallen out through the rear doors, probably after opening them myself.

On reflection, like in Kipling's novel, I could have been taken by some predator - lion, leopard or pack of hyenas and possibly brought up as one of them, a more likely alternative however, is that I would have ended up as a light snack for one of them!

Fortunately for me, my parents turned the van around and manged to locate me safe and sound.

When aged six I was sent to a boarding school, where corporal punishment was used to discipline us. The Headmaster was a megalomaniac and he preferred an oiled leather whip in preference to the lowly cane.

Being brought up in that part of the world, the vivid birds, dramatic weather, spectacular wild life could not fail to inspire anyone to want to reproduce the sights that could be seen.

Eventually, the politics of the country changed, and it became a dangerous and threatenening place to live for white farmers and settlers alike.

In the early sixties, my parents fled the continent and returned to England.

During the homeward bound flight, I gazed out of the window of the plane as it crossed over the English Channel and could not beleive how green everything looked.

'This emerald isle set in a silver sea'.

This change of scene made us poor in pocket but rich in culture.

When my schooling finished, I attended the Exeter School of Art, studying Graphic Art, but really I wanted to study Fine Art. Although the examiners saw little promise in my graphic work, during exhibitions of my other works, it appeared to attract visitors who were prepared to steal them from the Gallery and risk arrest by the police.

This even continued when I moved to London and exhibited my work occassionally through local galleries. Indeed, two large oil paintings of mine were stolen.

It is of course possible that the gallery owners seeing a artist with potential yet still wet behind the ears, took the opportunity to sell me a story

Either way, it proved the work was of value and people would go to great lengths to obtain some of it.

Pity there was not more honesty around because I really struggled to make ends meet in those early days.

I had dozens of different jobs in all the imaginable areas of employment in order to support my main goal of painting.

My painting competed with my other main preoccupation for socialising.

I started off in London working fro a Map maker during the week and on Sunday selling paintings along the railings of Green Park just down the street from Piccadily circus.

Sold many to tourists from Japan to the USA. Some paintings were sold through various galleries.

After getting married, we moved to Stockton, Cleveland. I had my first one man exhibition at Darlington Art Gallery, which was a resounding success.

However, I felt I needed to do more than just concentrate on painting which can be a solitary existence and so I trained for a professional career in a pleasant social environment.