Short biography of the artist

Stephen E Wise was born in December 1950, and was brought up in the High Peak of Derbyshire, where he lives to this day.  He started creating pictures in his teens using scraperboards, developing his own style in the medium.  In his forties, he switched to painting with watercolours, transferring the skills he had practised on scraperboard.  In addition, he has occasionally sculpted, and has created many tessellation pieces, mostly stonework patterns.

In his early watercolour work, Stephen underwent brief preparation prior to beginning a piece; however, the majority of his watercolours have been painted without any preparation at all.  His artworks are not impressions of real subject matter, but instead portray images stemming from his imagination.  Stephen approaches a piece with no clear idea as to what he will do, and simply creates pictures as ideas unfold in his mind.  This method, combined with the unique techniques he has developed, results in the highly original pieces that you can see in the gallery.