Stephen paints the sea in acrylics. Vibrant colour, light and a sense of place are the hallmarks of his work.

The sea taught him everything. Journalism took him to the deep many times, in all weathers and in a variety craft, as he covered extraordinary stories of shipwrecks, smugglers and even a present-day Marie Celeste.

He began to paint seriously when ill health brought early retirement eight years ago. Inspiration was on his doorstep. Some of the wildest seas in the world thunder to their Transatlantic landfall along the north coast of Cornwall and just a few miles away, lies a graveyard for shipping called the Isles of Scilly.

Stephen was nurtured by the old masters who taught him to see and some of the more modern masters who taught him to paint; notably  Michael Sanders, Ken Symonds and Roy Ray; with John Miller and Jack Pender fondly remembered.

Hating labels, he paints in different styles, preferring to choose which one best suits the work in hand.

One gallery owner, when confronted with one of his paintings, asked:  “Is it Impressionism?  Is it Expressionism?”…which got the immediate reply

“No. It’s the Way-I-Paint-ism.”

The pictures displayed are just a cross section of his work.