Steve Mbatia graduated from Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya in 1988 with a Bachelor of Education in Fine Art. His early life and environment were quite nourishing and motivating for a young artist in the formative years. Materials were easily available – from mud for modeling, to paper for drawing. Teachers and parents encouraged him although they wouldn’t hear anything about becoming a professional artist. They later had to accept this.

Elimo Njau, Professor Kariuki and Professor Mwaniki from the Kenyatta University were his main mentors in Art.

After obtaining his degree, he taught art to teachers at Thogoto teachers College upto 1993 when he resigned to go on his own as an artist.

He has held several exhibitions in Kenya, as well as Japan and New York.

He is an accomplished draughtsman and is able to shift from different types of media – watercolors, to oils, to charcoals, to collage and so forth with ease.

Mbatia is also an accomplished sculptor and works out of wood and stone.

He enjoys traveling to the Masai Mara to watch the annual wildebeest migration and make sketches. Ngorongoro and Amboseli in Tanzania are his favorite places for sources of inspiration.

His talent and versatility lend promise to his art career.