STEPHEN WATKINS

STEPHEN WATKINS

Stephen is a Suffolk-based artist with a background in Architecture. Despite having very low marks in art classes as a college student studying to become an architect (because he tended to paint what he wanted, not what he was asked to paint), he became a well-known local artist in Doha when, unbeknownst to him, some early paintings of his were taken to a local gallery and immediately sold.

Stephen focuses his art on city skylines to help capture and preserve important places and memories for people. The places we've lived and visited became a part of who we are, but memory is a fickle thing. Over time it fades, and people can become lost to us.

But art is a way to give permanence to those memories and significant, life-shaping events. He prefers to capture these moments using acrylic paint on canvas. Sometimes his skylines are relatively literal and straight forward- capturing important places that mean something for his customers or himself. Other times they're more abstract to represent the way we experience a place differently depending on our state of mind.

Each painting is a story of something, some place, or someone who changed a person and made them who they are today.

Visit him at Stonham Barns Park and look round his shop to see what he has on offer.