As an artist and art enthusiast I wanted to share with you the story of Stephen Wiltshire. Stephen is an acclaimed London artist and is in Sydney at the moment to show off his extraordinary talent for drawing cities in intricate detail. He will be in Sydney until the 1st of May and his work can be viewed at Customs House, Circular Quay Sydney.
Some of you may have seen the fascinating documentary about Stephen on the television recently. In that documentary he sketched the city of London from memory. From a short helicopter ride he was able to sketch the city right down to the correct amount of floors and windows in city office buildings! The accuracy and detail has astounded millions around the world.
I will admit that my interest is two fold. Not only am I inspired by him due to his art, but my gorgeous nephew has Autism so the issue is very close to my heart. My nephew started school this year and the story of Stephen Wiltshire is inspirational. His story reminds us all that those with Autism can go on to lead wonderful lives. Some will achieve extraordinary things and I wish this for my nephew too.
Autism affects 1 in 160 Australian children and my nephew is one of them.
From AAP
He's already impressed many around the world with his large-scale intricate panoramas of New York and London. Before drawing those two world-famous cities, he memorised the position and size of hundreds of buildings and landmarks while on 20-minute helicopter rides.
His four-metre long panorama of London on a curved canvas took five days to complete in 2007, with not one sneak peak at a photograph of the city for help.
Last October he followed up with a jaw-dropping 5.5 metre-long drawing of New York City, including the Empire State Building, which took just three days.
When he arrives in Australia, one of Stephen's first stops will be Sydney Tower so he can gain a birdseye view of the skyline before getting down to work at Customs House on Tuesday.
Sitting in his tiny studio perched in a loft above his gallery on London's famous Pall Mall, the quietly spoken artist is excited about his first visit to Australia. "I have never been there before," Stephen told AAP. "I wanted to go because it's a nice, beautiful city. It's going to be amazing."
Stephen has been invited to Sydney by Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) to mark autism month. His arrival was delayed by more than a week because of the recent disruption to air travel in Europe following the Icelandic volcano eruption.
While he won't decide on what exactly will be in his Sydney drawing until the last minute, he admits remembering all the detail of a city's skyline is difficult even though he makes it look relatively easy.
"I find it hard work to put in lots of information in just a few days," he said.
"Sometimes it's hard to remember because there's lots of detail. "My favourite is New York. They have the big avenues and lots of yellow taxi cabs. The traffic is chaotic and it's full of people."
Stephen's amazing talent for drawing was discovered when he was just five years old and sketching London's double decker buses. His family and teachers soon discovered that his art work was one of the key ways he could communicate.
By age nine he had moved on to St Paul's Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and Tower Bridge. His works were so good that Sir Hugh Casson of the Royal Academy described him as "the best child artist in Britain". Then as a teenager his attention switched to American cars such as Cadillacs and Buicks before enrolling as a fine arts student at City & Guilds. In 2006, he was awarded an MBE for services to art by Prince Charles.
Aspect's education and research executive director, Dr Trevor Clark, hopes Stephen's talents will help raise awareness of the one in 160 Australian children with autism.
"Stephen's talent is rare, but he highlights how important it is for potential to be realised and developed from an early age and how this can help with developing independence and self expression," he said.
Proceeds of the sale of Stephen's Sydney Prints will go to Autism Spectrum Australia. Here is the link. The site also has a link to Stephen's blog about his time in Sydney.
http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/Sydney.aspx
Link to the Stephen Wiltshire Gallery:-
Autism Spectrum Australia:-
http://www.autismspectrum.org.au/index.php?page=home
No comments:
Post a Comment