Awards
Early last year, Bekki won an art competition held at Hereford Cider Museum. The brief was to paint a picture showing the diversity of orchards in the Herefordshire countryside. In response to this, Bekki painted a picture of a cow grazing in a cider orchard in Weston-under-Penyard, backed by fields, poly-tunnels, and a stormy sky. The judges said it 'beautifully captured Herefordshire countryside'.
Following this win, she entered the Tate-Times Painting Challenge, with her oil painting of a tabby-cat, 'The Absence of Dreams'. The brief for this competition was to visit the Tate website, and veiw the work in the 'Poetry and Dreams' wing of the gallery. Artists were then expected to take inspiration from one of the paintings in the gallery, and produce their own response. Bekki took her inspiration from the photorealistic artists.
Just after Christmas, Bekki heard that she had won the competition, and as a result would be having her work displayed at Tate Modern, in the 7th floor gallery.
When the staff at Hereford Cider Museum heard of Bekki's achievement, they offered her a large gallery space to show off her paintings to the public.
About Me
Rebecca Louise Steele was born on 12th October 1991. She has lived in Herefordshire for the last eleven years, where she has developed a love for the countryside and for the plants and animals that she has found there.
From a young age Bekki wanted to be an artist, producing drawing after drawing, some not as good as others, but all showing evidence of her keen ambition to become a successful art student.
At the age of 9, Bekki was diagnosed with Glandular Fever, and has been suffering with extreme tiredness ever since. In 2009, she was diagnosed with mild ME, and illness that causes exhaustion, and makes Bekki more suseptable to viruses. Art became a hobby she used to keep herself busy when she was ill, and has helped her to battle the illness and get on the way to recovery. This made school life difficult, as she often missed large periods of time at school, and had to complete work from home.
Throughout her time at John Kyrle High School in Ross-on-Wye, Bekki found art came naturally to her, producing high standard portraits by the age of 14. She spent most of her free time drawing, which allowed her to learn new things and develop her drawing technique.
Bekki's Grandparents Rosemary and David had a big influence over her work, and both being artists themselves, helped her to 'fine-tune' her talent.
Bekki went on to study A level art at John Kyrle, where she broadened her artistic knowledge, both accedemically and practically, producing vast quantities of work mainly based around the countyside and nature.
Bekki has undertaken commissions for many pieces of public art, including a 280ft mural in Ross-on-Wye, which she worked on with local artist Tom Cousins. He taught her the 'tricks of the trade', explaining rules and regulations as well as showing her techniques for outdoor artwork. She also painted three large murals at the local youth centre, and a painting on a shop font in Stroud, 15ft from the ground.
She has had work exhibited at Tate Modern in London, after winning the Tate-Times Painting Challenge, and held her own exhibition at the Cider Museum in Hereford at the age of 17. She put on show an accumulation of work from the previous three years.
Bekki is currently studying Illustration at Cardiff School of Art and Design.