When I was a child I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be. I had a keen interest in the natural world and was good at art.

I ended up in Art and Design College as it looked like a fun and exciting place.

I LOVED being creative, but was not so good at being told what to do. I grew increasingly unhappy and felt like an outsider.

A college trip to Venice, Italy proved to be the turning point in my life.

Whilst taking photographs around the hidden corners of Venice at night, my friend John and I shared a strong presentiment of real menace lurking ahead of us.  The sense of danger was tangible.  There was a rubbish collection strike at the time and there were warning sirens of an impending flood which arrived the next day. Until 2007 Venice still used sirens dating to the Second World War to warn its residents of floods.

John's camera inexplicably jammed, at precisely the moment we walked over a little bridge and into danger.

Ahead of us, in the middle of the path was an armed group of men;  they had the aura of the mafia. They were not people who wanted photographs of their faces taken.

A click from our cameras could have been trouble. This was back in the days when cameras clicked loudly.

My friend and I both had the same view thought; that the camera malfunction had saved us. It was as if we had a guardian angel watching over us.

We both felt that we had come close to something really menacing that night.

Was this a real or imagined danger? What is important is the effect it had on us. For me it was the realisation of a spiritual dimension to life. I felt this so powerfully that it changed me.

I became conscious of a mysterious and glorious spiritual force which rationale could not explain. It was like something from above and undeniable. It gave me the motivation which I had lacked to communicate something to the world through my art.

It was this experience that awakened in me the need to explore the spiritual side of the universe through creativity. As I get older this focus is getting stronger.

The fact that I shared this experience with my friend John (now a successful architect and designer in London) heightened and reinforced the power of the moment.  It felt like we had a telepathic experience.

Soon after the trip to Italy, a college friend from Hong Kong asked if I would like to do some paintings for a couple Chinese restaurants.  I agreed thinking nothing much of it other than a way to make a bit of extra cash. 

During the summer holidays I set up my easel to do some paintings in the garden. As I painted, the final piece of the puzzle slotted into place.  I totally loved painting for myself. And not to meet someone else’s brief.

It was just the canvas and me.  In this moment I understood that I could not fit into the design world. I had to paint what my inner voice demanded. I had found my mojo and my vocation.

I started taking time out from Art College to go to London to see art exhibitions and the theatre.  I started reading poetry especially Shelley, and classic literature like Jane Austin, Thomas Hardy and the contemporary John Fowles.  I was hungry to feed my mind and soul with art and culture.  In the evenings I was doing my own art and prints in my bedsit, even after a long day at College. Sometimes working through the night. 

Increasingly, I just didn’t fit into my Design course.  I presented work at College, which left most of the teaching staff angry or bemused.  I was after something other than meeting the demands of a design brief.
I wanted to do work which explored and honoured the new sense of wonder which I now enjoyed.  I wanted to expand my creativity and not be confined.

I decided I had to leave College; this was only a year early before graduating in a four year course.  It was one of the hardest decisions of my life. It upset a lot of people and was painful for my family, who were naturally worried about my future.  We all know the cliché of the starving artist.

I received well-meaning doom laden warnings that “most artists fail to make a living by their art”. Which may be true – many have to teach or supplement their income away from their art practice. But I was determined to follow my
vocation.

Powered by my experience in Venice, I had the conviction that being a fine artist and painting was who I was.  I had the motivation and drive to start my tentative journey into adulthood as an artist. 

Taking Van Gogh as my main influence. I took on painting out doors from nature.

I have never given up since then.  I have done other jobs along the way to support my family and myself.  But art has never been just a “hobby” for me. It is who I am.

I consciously choose my path rather than did what others wanted for me.

First, I moved to London and travelled around Europe on a rail ticket. Finally, I settled in Dorset, the home of the writer Thomas Hardy and other great creative people past and present.

In a way, being an artist was my destiny all along. My mother had actually had a premonition (whilst pregnant) that I would be an artist and chose my name with this in mind. She even wrote it out to see what worked best as a signature,
before deciding on Stephen with a “ph”.

Now four decades later, I have taught myself how to paint (it takes time to get good) and how to live as an artist. Van Gogh, Monet and artists like Rothko are my main influences. 

I am a natural optimist by nature. But I have had my share of difficult times along the way. Thankfully, I managed to get myself back together. Friends, family, nature and art helped pull me through some dark times.

I have never let go of the artistic conviction, awakened one night in Venice as a teenager on the brink of adulthood; that life was much more mysterious and magical than I had realised.  And this has changed me.  It helped to spark the
motivation to become an artist and to share this sense of wonder.

I am having the best creative ideas that I have ever had. And I have years of experience to draw upon to execute these visions.

I hope that my story and art resonates with you. 

If so, do reach out to me.

I wish you faith, kindness and love. 

Stephen x

 

Photo: Burton Bradstock Dorset July 2024 - John and Stephen, over 40 years of enduring friendship