Amazingly, there are entire cities which have been drawn purely from memory by the brilliant UK artist Stephen Wiltshire. A creator so unique and independent from the typical artist, Wiltshire expresses his own world through his ornate drawings. Diagnosed with autism at age three, drawing was a perfect diversion from life. Wiltshire is known best for his incredibly detailed panorama drawings of numerous city landscapes from around the globe. After just a short helicopter ride over the city, he is able to capture an accurate and precise drawing with only a pencil and paper and the time of about five days.

As a result of being diagnosed with autism at the age of three, Wiltshire didn’t speak his first words until he was five. His parents sent him to Queensmill School in London in hopes to help him learn to read and write. Astonishingly, his first words at the age of five were “paper” and “pencil.” Soon it was discovered that Wiltshire loved to draw, and was notably good at it. His teacher taught him the alphabet by associating buildings with each letter, by doing this Wiltshire was able to speak fluently by age nine. Although he spoke perfectly fine, drawing became the best way for him to communicate with the world. Wiltshire found a passion for drawing cars, buildings, animals, and people. It wasn’t until many years later that his hidden talent breached the interests of the media, and shed light on a successful future for him. Architecture is Wiltshire’s main focus, he is able to make impressively detailed drawings without any references. Prior to the roughly five-day drawing process, he captures the fine detail of a city during a 20-minute helicopter tour. Wiltshire is able to recall the smallest of details and even sketch the exact number of windows or stories in a building.

At age eight, Stephen Wiltshire began to get publicly recognized for his art. Most notably was him being acknowledged by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Edward Heath. Even though he was at such a young age, he was asked by the British Prime Minister to draw the famous Salisbury Cathedral; which became the first drawing he sold. Wiltshire published his first book of drawings in 1987. Several years later his fame grew, and today crowds of hundreds surround him while he sits for hours drawing the panorama of the city.

In the past few years, Stephen Wiltshire has traveled around the world gaining the attention and following of many. Wiltshire’s photographic memory presents his most compelling talent, with his ability to memorize a city in minutes. His first panorama drawing was in May 2005 of Tokyo, Japan. Since then, he has continued to venture around the world to Rome, Hong Kong, Madrid, Dubai, Jerusalem, London, and New York. In an interview with CBS News in 2009 Wiltshire saved his opportunity of drawing New York, calling it “The Best For Last” (CBS News Drawing from Memory). Currently, a viral video of Wiltshire drawing the panorama city skyline of New York city has catapulted his career.

Along with Wiltshire’s public success, he also received a remarkable award from the Queen of England. In January 2006, Stephen Wiltshire was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II for his honorable services to the art world. He was acclaimed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), “an award given by the Queen to an individual for outstanding service to the community” -Awardintelligence. More recently, in December of 2016, Wiltshire was featured in a Nissan advertisement which perfectly demonstrated his acclaimed talent. In the advertisement, he is given 60 seconds to memorize the new Nissan Micra and then challenged to draw the entire car using the Google Tilt Brush, a new device developed by Google to draw a 3D  virtual reality.

Today some of Stephen Wiltshire’s amazing drawings can be seen in The Stephen Wiltshire Gallery located in London, England. The gallery includes some of his original drawings from when he was around thirteen years old.

For more information and images of his drawings visit http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/index.aspx