Autistic Artist That Can Draw Complete Cities From His Memory

 

Stephen Wiltshire is a British Architecture Artist and also an autistic savant. An autistic savant is anybody with autism and an extraordinary ability or area of knowledge.

Stephen was born in Wiltshire, London, England, in the year 1974 to Caribbean parents. Wiltshire was mute as a young boy, he was diagnosed with autism at the tender age of five.

He attended Queensmill school in London. As a young boy, Stephen expressed interest in drawing. Even though he started with the drawing of animals and cats, his attention quickly shifted to drawing of landscapes after he saw a book of pictures.

He started to communicate through his art, and the first word that he ever said was ‘paper’. With the help of his teachers, he learnt to speak fully at the age of nine.

Stephen can look at something and draw an accurate and detailed picture of what he has seen. He frequently draws an entire city from his memory based on single and brief helicopter rides. For example, he reproduced a detailed drawing of four miles of London after a single helicopter ride above the city.

Stephen has drawn different cities over the years, including Rome, Hong Kong, Dubai, Madrid, Jerusalem and many others.

His drawings have received many recognitions and have been the subjects of many Tv documentaries. In the year 2006, Stephen had an honour as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in services to art.

He also opened his permanent gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London.

In the year 2015, Stephen got an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Architectural Illustration (SAI). In January 2015, Stephen got an honorary Fellow of The Scottish Association of Architectural Artists. He is truly talented.