I saw this extremely talented British artist on the news last night: he's in Sydney, Australia, doing an exhibition, and his work was amazing.  

Diagnosed with autism at the age of three, he was completely non-verbal until the age of eight, when his teachers took away his art supplies to "encourage" him to talk.  His first word was "paper" as he learned to ask for his art supplies verbally.  He became fully verbal by the age of nine.

He was interveiwed on the news and there was no sign that he'd ever had trouble speaking: he was fluent, coherent and had a shy demeanour that became confident when he was discussing his artistic ambitions.  I was very impressed with him, and thought other members might like the link to his site:

http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/index.aspx

Alison

Here is the art he did of Sydney:
http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/show_p...px?Id=2747
Alison

It's always interesting to me to see how an artist progresses. His early work focuses on the buildings. Trees and people are only hinted at initially. Later on, as is bound to happen with practice, these other elements become integral parts of the whole.

Judging from all the aerial views, I suspect he works a lot from photographs.

I too was drawn to architectural two-point perspective when I first began drawing. Order, repetition, and detail. I was heavily influenced by the fanciful work of M.C. Escher rather than actual structures though.

Actually, he said in his interview that he usually takes a helicopter ride over the city and then does the artwork from memory.  For his completed Sydney-scape he went to the top of the Sydney Tower and gazed down for around twenty minutes, then drew the art from memory over the next three days.

I was talking to someone about this guy the other day, but neither of us could remember his name.

Yes, he works from memory after flying over a city.  I think he was filmed for a programme in the UK when he was flown over London and then produced detailed and accurate drawings of that city.

Way cool!

I think I once saw a documentary on Autism with him in it.

From one of the links I've found about him (now going to be obsessed the whole day, I can tell   ):

"Another popular misconception is that autistic artistic savants solely draw buildings and objects and are not interested in depicting the human form - let alone creating caricatures. Stephen, and artists such as Roy Wenzel whose work was included in his "Not a camera" exhibition, have proved this theory wrong.

Stephen starting producing caricatures of his teachers at primary school, and has since then produced many caricature 'snap shots' documenting amusing incidents encountered on his trips abroad. These include affectionate images of those closest to him - his family, the Hewsons, and even Oliver Sacks."

Alison

This post was last modified: 04-30-2010 02:40 AM by Alison.

And still more.  Note the "accepted stereotype" bit.  

"Many observers have noted that Wiltshire, contrary to the accepted stereotype of autistic people, has an engaging personality and a strong sense of humor. He sometimes performs impromptu, but wickedly accurate imitations of such singers as Tom Jones. He currently resides in Maida Vale, West London with his mother. He reportedly does not have a girlfriend, although he admits to a preference for blondes, most notably the actress Jennie Garth from the television series Beverly Hills 90210."

Thanks for jogging my memory , I have also seen a documentary with him in it

I enjoyed watching Stephen Wiltshire MBE drawing in Sydney in the live videocast thingimy on the internet, as I'm not in Sydney.

Wiltshire is one of many autistic people who have been the subject of patronizing written portraits by Oliver Sacks, "the man who mistook his patients for a literary career".

I'm in the process of adding Wiltshire to my online lists of famous autistic people. When I put together a bibliography of sources of information about Wiltshire for my list entry, I chose to leave out the stuff written by Oliver Sacks.