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Steven Swanson places a heavy emphasis on atmosphere, having grown up on a farm on the prairie, where the landscape was very subtle and abstract. From the beginning, he was a keen observer, and so he has always considered atmosphere to be of the greatest importance.

Fog and snow, in his memory, became the backdrop that illuminated the subject. He draws an analogy to musical composition. "It can be like the lower notes in the orchestra that forms a base. The symphony is structured with the melody functioning like a figure in space, and the atmosphere, like the lower notes, is thick to support the figure."

Swanson was an architect by education, but very soon he turned to art. "I opted for a more spontaneous return on my energy!" he smiles. "I learned from Clyfford Still's work how verticals and linear directions affect the dynamic movement of a composition." He began to create his own images, and soon found ready acceptance.

He moved to Santa Fe in 1985, where he had numerous exhibits for six years. He won a Purchase Prize from the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts and was in the first annual College of Santa Fe Monothon, which has become one of the most successful art department benefits in the country.

His work began to find its way into good private, public, and corporate collections. He moved to Minnesota in 1990 where he now lives and works. The monotypes shown here are examples of Steve's most recent body of work.