A late-blooming talent

The catalyst was his wife Helen, who was determined he should use his talent. “When I met him ten years ago he had a load of blank canvases stacked in his room,” says Helen.

“He had always wanted to paint, but his parents wanted him to have a proper job and after university he was always very busy with work.

“The recession came and he had more time, so I encouraged him to paint. The recession was a cloud with a silver lining. I could see immediately he has this incredible talent.”

Helen, a town planner, met her husband when she went to work for him in Leeds. It was love at first sight. The proper jobs have helped inform the part figurative/part abstract pictures. Stephen is a landscape architect and spent time as a pilot and flying instructor at Rufforth airfield.

Now, he spends much of his working week in his studio, a converted cart shed, in the garden of his home in West Lilling, near York. The fruits of his labour decorate the walls in almost every room of the house, and although they are breathtaking, he insists they are rejects.

The best have gone to galleries including the Biscuit Factory in Newcastle and the Minster gallery in Winchester. Part of their appeal is the exquisite framing.

“I took some of my first paintings to a framer in Malton who used to work at the Tate. He was very appreciative and encouraging and I benefited enormously from his experience.

“I didn’t know if my paintings were any good, but he said I should sell them and that gave me a lot of confidence,” says Stephen.

Helen’s favourite picture is his vivid interpretation of a Wolds scene that hangs in the sitting room of their home. It was Stephen who fell for the property’s period charm and its proximity to the Wolds and the North York Moors, but he had to persuade Helen to buy it.

“I couldn’t see the potential of the place and Stephen could. I looked at the details and felt there was a lot of work to do before I could feel at home here,” she says. The Georgian farmhouse was structurally sound and had been modernised, but the couple have given it elegance and warmth.

The first job was to turn the staircase round to create a more spacious hall and better flow. They also remodelled the kitchen and put in an island unit and oak worktops. Then they redecorated, unearthing some treasures on the way including the original inglenook hidden behind a modern reproduction fireplace.

“I knew the fireplace wasn’t original and had a feeling there was something more interesting behind it, so I told them builders to knock everything out and keep going.

“They were worried they might damage something structural, but we found the inglenook, which really improved the look of the room,” says Helen.

The four-bedroom house has been decorated in casein and distemper paints from Farrow and Ball and Helen’s old furniture and finds from auctions and junk shops.

They include the battered leather armchair, kitchen table and the collection of Royal Doulton from the Lambeth Pottery.

Two old three-foot wide bedsteads were bought from a sale at Ripley Castle.

Helen had a wooden platform made so she could put them together to create one super kingsize bed, which works perfectly with a fireplace, which she bought in Sussex years before.

“Helen’s homemaking skills are unparalleled,” says Stephen, who gave the garden a makeover.

It was once just grass and gravel, but is now perfect and private thanks to a new wall that surrounds it, raised beds and resident chickens.

Visitors to this this year’s North Yorkshire Open Studios will get a chance to see it, as Stephen is opening up his workspace for the event.

“People will see my work has evolved. I started doing big canvases, but I’m doing smaller pictures now, though they are all inspired by remote landscapes,” he says.

He has come a long way in just two years and is set to go even further thanks to plans for a painting odyssey around remote areas of the British Isles. “I’m about to embark on Turner-like tour of the UK’s wild places taking in the Hebrides and Cornwall.

“The plan is to get a camper van and go off for a year and paint,” he says. “It will be amazing and it’s all down to Helen. She’s my biggest fan. Without her, those blank canvases would still be leaning against the wall.”

To see more of Stephen’s work visit www.stephenheward.com. Stephen’s work will be on show during the North Yorkshire Open Studios event, which runs from Friday to Sunday, June 10,11 and 12 and Saturday and Sunday, June 18 and 19. Painters, rag ruggers, potters, blacksmiths and stonemasons are among 120 artists and makers who will open up their studios to the public. Much of the adventure lies in tracking down the studios using the maps and guides which are available free from the organisers or online at http://www.nyos.org.uk. Studio spaces range from cottages and barns in the North Yorkshire Moors and Dales, to creative coastal spaces, racing stables, station waiting rooms and suburban living rooms in Harrogate.

For more details visit www.nyos.org.uk or call Art Connections tel 01756 748529.