Deptford's council estates the inspiration for this artist Steve Burden paintings of dystopia

Steve Burden, 42, draws inspiration for his work from his childhood on the Pepys estate, where he lived until he was 10.

While his earlier work explored dystopian themes drawn from his negative memories of the estate, he has changed his focus to the historical significance the location holds and is currently working on a series chronicling the history of monarchs in Deptford.

“For me, when I was a kid, the whole place seemed out of proportion and like a fortress,” said Steve.

“It got too rough for my mum and culminated in someone throwing a milk bottle at her from one of the upper stories.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. My mum said enough’s enough. Then we moved to the Downham estate which was just as rough.

“The first paintings were very sombre and I don’t know if they were doing me any favours painting them.

“While it was important for me to get those paintings out, I didn’t want to be dwelling in negativity. I wanted to take the work in different angles.”

Steve has recently been considering the aesthetics and architecture of the Pepys estate and he was considering cladding on the buildings in the months before the Grenfell Tower disaster.

He said: “I wasn’t looking at it in the sense of it being highly flammable. I was more interested in how the council glossed over the aesthetics of the building.

“They went from rough Béton Brut concrete to being veneered over, which personally I don’t think looks any more attractive. In fact I think the grey buildings were more interesting.”

The Thames also holds great significance for Steve, who went to school at St. Joseph’s near the river in Dockhead.

“The river’s this salient thing that runs through everything. It’s a moving source that’s very dirty and dark. There’s a hell of a lot of history that wafts through that river.”

Before becoming an artist Steve had studied Design at Goldsmiths before going into a career in design and branding.

As he rose through the ranks to creative director, his work took him to America, the Middle East and Australia but he was unsatisfied and found a release through painting at the weekends.

He said: “It wasn’t a labour of love, it was just a labour.”

When Steve’s wife asked him what it was he really wanted to do, he told her he wanted to become a painter and began a Master’s in Fine Art at Bath Spa University.

He said: “A big reason I did the MA in Fine Art is that, although I could draw and could arguably paint, a lot of my work before my MA was perceived to be quite decorative.

“I wanted to make it less decorative and underpin it with more meaning.”

His work drew the attention of Artiq, who named him their artist of the month for May and placed one of his paintings, ironically Sunk Estate, in the Walkie Talkie building.

Steve, who now lives in Somerset, is thankful for his success and looks forward to building on it.

“At the moment I’m riding a bit of a wave and I feel very privileged to be doing what I’m doing,” he said.

“I’d love to have just one piece of work in a public collection. For me that would represent a benchmark and it gives me something to aspire to.”