TWO years ago Steve Cole made the decision to eschew television, radio and newspapers.
In a quest to live a simpler existence, the artist even removed himself from the electoral roll, and now rarely ventures from his studio in Goodnight, NSW, where he finds joy creating intricate prints on his homemade etching press.
It’s a reclusive existence, but Steve sees it as simply ‘stepping out of society’.
“The world is a shit of a place,” he says bluntly.
“Now I’m happy here, I’m doing what I wanted to do and I’m becoming more creative, more relaxed and more happy. “
After leaving school in Melbourne to become an apprentice upholsterer, Steve found himself drawn to travel, sailing the world on yachts he built himself.
It was on one such trip in the early nineties when Steve began to take art seriously.
“The Red Sea’s a hell of a thing to go up in a boat because the wind is always blowing and you’re stuck there sometimes, nothing to do.
“So I just started to draw.”`
This hobby developed into a full blown passion when Steve discovered printmaking, and once he’d built his own etching press he was hooked.
Etching is the art of printmaking using acids to put grooves and marks into a metal sheet, which is inked up and then rolled through a high pressure press to create a print.
Steve’s face lights up when he discusses the many facets of the medium.
“But it’s unlimited what you can do. It’s just limited by your imagination, all the different techniques and you can put more than one together,” he explains.
“If you use good paper and a good pencil you can just keep doing it and doing it until it’s the way you want it.”
Steve’s studio is a treasure trove of prints, wood cuts, lino cuts, and of course, etchings.
He’s always experimenting — rolling flywire, ferns, lace and even insects through his press.
But the ex-Vietnam vet takes solace in the simplest of art.
“I enjoy the pencil work because I want to be in control and I want to do what I want to do,” he says.
“If you use good paper and a good pencil you can just keep doing it and doing it until it’s the way you want it.”
“Printmaking sometimes can be very frustrating.”
Steve and his wife Li escape to northern Thailand every year, a place where, according to Steve, the climate is warm, the food is good and the people are brimming with creativity.
He’s open to moving to Chiang Mai full time he says, but something always seems to pull him back to Goodnight, where his routine involves rising at 5am and heading straight to his studio to work.
“I like to get up in the quiet in the morning. You’re fresh, nothing’s gone wrong for the day. I like it early.”
He’s looking forward to his printmaking workshop at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery next weekend, a chance for the self confessed hermit to share his passion with others.
“It’s not just about the printmaking itself its about inspiration, ideas, all the different avenues… it sets people off developing their creative skills.”
And for Steve, there is nothing more important.
“The last thing I want to be known as is repetitious,” he says with a wink.
