"A life long love of ceramics and a strong desire to interpret the natural world has made the visual arts the primary focus of my professional life. Van Gogh, Henry Moore, Brancusi, Giacometti and Picasso have all influenced my work in some way, but I have always striven to find my own voice and have worked hard at developing a unique style. I have been making ceramic wall sculptures for the past twenty five years including hundreds of ceramic masks and musicians. In 2007 I began work on a series of ceramic landscapes depicting some of my favorite spots in the Pacific Northwest and enjoyed the work so much that I decided to shift the focus of my work to landscape art. I have produced a large body of work over the past four years ranging from panoramic mountain views to close-up studies of branches, leaves and flowers. Most of my landscapes, but not all are based on photographs I’ve taken. I tend to work straight from photographs without the aid of sketches and just let the scene unfold on my ceramic canvas. I do my sketching on a clay slab, then carve down and rework the surfaces as the clay slowly dries over a several week period. After bisque firing I finish the pieces with low-fire glazes and will occasionally incorporate metal, wood or enamel paints for effect, then mount the finished work on stained plywood. My goal is to find harmonious compositions in the natural world and through my own visual language interpret that view into a unique piece of art that fits somewhere between folk art and abstraction." - Steve Portteus
Steve Portteus was born and raised in Western Washington where he grew up with a love of the mountains and coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest. He developed an early interest in ceramics which led him to Western Washington University where he received a BA in Fine Arts in 1980. After graduation he left for Santa Barbara, California to study cinematography at Brooks Institute of Photography where he received a second BA in 1983. He also studied at the Goethe Institute in Radolfzell, Germany and spent two years in his twenties working and traveling through Western Europe. After a few years working in photography and model making for films in Los Angeles in the mid 1980s Steve returned to Seattle. While working for the family music distribution company he began sculpting ceramic masks and wall sculptures in his spare time. He started Kilnhouse Sculpture in the mid 1990’s after demand for commissioned animal masks increased and over the following two decades produced hundreds of pieces before shifting his interest to ceramic landscape art. He has participated in juried art events for the Tacoma Art Museum, the Puget Sound Blood Center and shown his work in galleries, professional offices and restaurants in Seattle and Tacoma. Steve currently lives with his wife and four children on Fox Island, Washington and works out his home studio.
