Steve Riddle

Based in the Los Angeles area, Steve Riddle is a true Renaissance man, and is known for his skills as a guitarist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist , songwriter and fine artist. Although he is known for his undeniable skill on the guitar, long before he was a virtuoso musician he was a gifted prodigal visual artist. Steve's natural gifting for art was recognized early on by his teachers who encouraged his parents to nurture his gift, this led to exposure to a wide variety of artistic mediums and styles which eventually culminated when he was exposed to the traditional oil painting style of traditional realism and the methods of the Old Masters of European Art. As a young artist he maintained an art studio in Riverside CA and studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena CA as well as at the California Art Institute in Calabasas CA, winning some awards, showing in galleries and garnering some attention in newspapers as a young artist with a bright future ahead of him. Steve was then fortunate to be able to apprentice with one of the last remaining painters using the long forgotten techniques of the Old Masters and he quickly incorporated those techniques into his style. He eventually attended Art College at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia on a full scholarship based on his body of work and it was there in his first year that he won the Thouron Prize for best painting. Young and ambitious, he returned to Southern California. Upon leaving school he began to exhibit at galleries while maintaining an art studio in Orange County CA, and he worked short stints at Disney and in the comic book industry among other things. Despite having various artistic opportunities one thing was always clear, his paintings always made a significant impact on those viewing them. Although the Art World was beginning to open up for him he was not content, some gallery shows in Beverly Hills and other areas were exciting but he still felt something was missing as he not yet found his muse. Eventually growing frustrated he decided to put his painting career aside while he pursued the other great love of his life which was his love of the guitar and blues and rock music. This has since led to over 20 years of performing as a solo artist and with other bands releasing CDs and digital releases of his music along the way. His original music crafted a style incorporating traditional elements of blues and rock music with other elements such as hard rock, country and jazz. He studied all the guitar greats such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and others. and listeners often comment on the audible strength of their influence on his playing. His music features a hard hitting passion and edge that is especially present during live performances. Steve regularly performs live with his band The Steve Riddle Band. All of this creative expression through music alone would sound like enough but painting was not done calling him..

In 2020 the COVID 19 pandemic hit and all of a sudden all live music came to an abrupt end. This was when Art came calling to him again. Fate was already working as unbeknownst to most people, in 2019 Steve had already begun creating Art again, working under an anonymous name and releasing it quietly on the internet for pure enjoyment, the intentions were not for it to become anything more than that, but once the pandemic hit he felt a leading that it was destined to become more, so he resumed painting this time painting music subject matter and began to get the same incredible reactions to his paintings as he had before, there was one difference now though, Steve had now found his muse, he began to paint images related to his love of guitars, musicians that influenced him and other images from popular culture and the reaction was immediately strong.  The Renaissance Man has now come full circle with a resurrected art career that will no doubt leave art collectors with not only artwork that they love but a legacy of the interconnected harmony between the inspiring energy of music and art by a man who loves them both so deeply and has dedicated his life to them. You can find him performing regularly throughout the Southern California area.