Transport Art

This artist is passionate about ‘all things transportation’ … he loves painting and he loves realism. His artistry has given him the means to combine these things beautifully.

- Trevor Lang

Steve Leadenham is a Sydney-based artist specialising in transport subjects. He paints in oils and acrylics on canvas. He was brought up in Doncaster, South Yorkshire (England) and while attending the local grammar school was encouraged to undertake a number of short courses at Doncaster School of Art including life drawing and mixed media classes.

Steve pursued a career in the rail transport industry in Yorkshire and London during the 1970s, finding time to produce the occasional painting. In 1980, he married and emigrated to Australia to continue his logistics career in the transport and electrical engineering industries.

This artist maintains that he has always had the same basic interests.

“I remember having my train paintings posted on the classroom wall in primary school,” he reflects. “I won a prize of Adrian Hill’s ‘Watercolour Painting’ book for primary school artwork.”

In the last seven years Steve has produced an increasing number of paintings – many of which are in the possession of collectors and corporate clients in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and the United States.

His association with aviation photographer Sam Chui led to three paintings being displayed at the Airliners International 2003 convention in Columbus, Ohio in July of that year; and his work was selected by Brunel Promotions for publication in a transport calendar in the UK in 2005.

In 2004, Steve held his first solo exhibition at the Qantas Founders Museum at Longreach, Queensland. The following year he joined fellow aviation artists Nikyla Amanda Smith and Juanita Franzi in an exhibition entitled ‘Aerial Artistry’ at the same venue. He returned for a further solo exhibition in September 2006.