Stephen Wise was born on the 8th December 1950. His carefree childhood years were spent in the rolling hills of North Derbyshire, where he studied nature and allowed his imagination to roam free. It was from this existence that he derived the ability to immerse himself in his own imaginary world; it is a skill that has not left him, and provides the bedrock upon which his artworks are constructed. Indeed, this pure, almost child-like, way of thinking can be seen in evidence throughout his portfolio, and is the hallmark which sets him apart from many of his contemporaries.

His primary motivation is his overwhelming urge to create, and to make his visionary statements accessible to the widest audience possible. This communicative instinct means that his paintings mean as much to the youngest child as to the most experienced critic, and is why his most popular pictures have such enduring appeal.

When approaching a new work, Stephen very rarely prepares. His technique is to let his ideas present themselves once he is in the studio, and then to set about translating them into artistic images. Simply put, he turns a stream of consciousness into a work of art. Certain painters are unable to create successful pieces in such a way; Stephen’s genius is that, despite the immediacy of his method, and the almost naïve mentality that underlies it, he is able to create images that are both sophisticated and meaningful to the observer.

His style is hard to pinpoint, and it is difficult to associate his work with any genre. While he has been compared to Picasso, he is no cubist, and his paintings could never be rightfully called impressionistic. He can be compared to certain artists, whose technique is to put components derived from reality through their own distinctive filter; however, the difference with Stephen is that the components originate in his own visionary observations, and it is this imaginative methodology that makes the art of Stephen Wise unique.

ABOUT THE ARTIST