Artist’s Statement Prof Stephen Kite BA BArch (Hons) Phd RIBA FRSA I am an Emeritus Professor of the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, an FRSA, and a Companion of the John Ruskin charity, The Guild of St George. The keen observation that produces my watercolours of architecture, the urban scene, and of buildings in landscape, draws on my love of architecture, my experiences of architectural practice, design-studio teaching, and research into the history and theory of architecture. Aspects of these investigations are evident in my most recent books: Shadow-Makers: A Cultural History of Shadows in Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2017) and Shaping the Surface: Materiality and the History of British Architecture 1840-2000 (Bloomsbury, 2022). I have also written extensively on the inspiring ideas of John Ruskin and Adrian Stokes. I work predominantly in watercolour on white, or tinted sheets. I especially admire those watercolour traditions of Britain and the USA – historical and contemporary – which recognize the glowing, transparent qualities of the watercolour medium on a basis of penetrating draughtsmanship. I have lived and worked in Ireland, the Middle East, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and latterly Cardiff, and my work draws on a continuity of field-sketching in Europe, the Middle East, North America, Australasia etc. Wales offers many inspiring subjects: ancient barns, manors, and churches; in Cardiff can be found the muscular High-Victorian architecture of William Burges, and of mercantile Butetown, the medieval, and the labyrinthine passages of the arcades. I have exhibited widely over a period of some forty-five years: with the Society of Architect Artists (later reborn as the SocAA), in a number of galleries in London, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and in Wales – where I show regularly with The Albany Gallery, Cardiff. January 2025