Stewart Semple trained as an architect at Glasgow School of Art and Thames Polytechnic. He worked in architecture from 1947 until 1994, and since then has concentrated on painting. In recent years his work has mostly involved the largely flat landscapes of Australia and East Anglia and their seas. In a search for the mood of a landscape, the work has concentrated on colour and line and that has simplified form. This has been assisted by the demarcation of the horizon of the subjects, where, even if the horizon is not discernible, the contours of the land, the surf of the waves, and the layers of the clouds reflect it. Generally, the works begin as watercolour sketches, painted quickly at the site, usually in the pen or from a vehicle, train or aircraft. The finished works, in oil on board or canvas, are painted with thin layers of colour layered over one another.
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