Stephen McCann .... "I’m a self-taught artist living between the British seaside town of Margate and a mountain town in Spain. My work comes from a lifetime of curiosity, hard graft, and seeing the world up close — from doing a milk round in Yorkshire at 12, serving behind the bar in the rough pubs of Leeds and London’s East End, working in an active minefield, publishing fanzines in Leeds, creating a sportswear company, launching technology ventures, to raising a family. A playful streak runs through my work, bringing humour, surprise, and joy to ordinary moments. While observing and drawing people in streets, parks, and bars, I began exploring the “Shadow Animal Self,” imagining hidden impulses and instinctive natures — a fusion of the shadow self and the shadow animal. I turn everyday moments into something visual. My paintings explore colour, texture, and the quiet intensity of lived experience. Being untrained, my work is raw, honest, and unapologetically personal."