Born 1947, Howard William Steer is the most senior member of the Arid Zone Artists. While the majority of his paintings depict the people of the Outback and their struggle with a desperately harsh environment, many deal with the life of early miners in his hometown, Broken Hill. Growing up in that city, he had ample opportunity to talk to older miners, pioneers and union leaders, some of whom had memories of life dating back to the turn of the century.

From them, he developed the foundation for what he calls 'Story Art', where each painting tells its own story, be that of a backyard wedding or a Sunday afternoon pub crawl. A prime example is the 'Flying Doctor' series featuring a winged, black-suited saviour complete with top hat and bag. It's a recurrent theme, much like Nolan's Ned Kelly. Like many Outback artists, Howard's style is classified as naive realism.

Howard's work is in many private collections throughout Australia and overseas.