By Jessie Moniz

A ground-breaking London artist with autism has helped to raise $11,000 for two Bermuda charities through a special auction of his work.

Money raised from a drawing of the Hamilton skyline by artist Stephen Wiltshire, went to the Bermuda National Gallery and Bermuda Autism Education and Support (BASE).

The 36-year-old was invited to Bermuda by BNG chairman Gary Phillips.

“We have invited Mr. Wiltshire because he is an exceptional artistic talent with unique needs, needs that are shared by many in our community,” Mr. Phillips said.

Mr. Wiltshire is known the world over for his intricately detailed skylines and has been on countless television programmes including a recent episode of 60 Minutes.

He also has his own gallery in London, the Stephen Wiltshire Gallery, where his work sells for thousands of pounds.

Ironically, when he was first diagnosed with autism at the age of three, his family’s only hope was that he would one day be able to dress himself, and have a little independence.

“The lesson is never give up,” said his sister, Annette Wiltshire, who travelled with him to Bermuda last week.

“If you love your child and you love your family you will do what it takes.

“When he was a child, I don’t think any of us thought that what he has now would be possible. We just wanted him to be happy within himself and be accepted by everyone else. He wanted to integrate and socialise and do all the same things that we take for granted.”

But, she said, her brother had broken through barriers in ways they never imagined. He went to university and has a fine arts degree from City and Guilds of London Art School.

The Royal Gazette spoke with Ms Wiltshire on Friday as her brother sketched at the BNG. He sat before an easel with an iPod firmly plugged in his ears, and a battered blue desk diary at his elbow.

The diary had a rough sketch in black ink done during lunch at the Beau Rivage Restaurant at the Newstead Belmont Hills Golf<>Resort the afternoon before.Slowly, the skyline of the City of Hamilton began to emerge on the paper.Although cameras flashed, people chatted and moved about, Mr. Wiltshire seemed unperturbed.”Stephen is able to do multiple things at the same time,” said Ms Wiltshire. “The television can be on. Music can be on. He’s drawing. Magazines can be open. It doesn’t jar his concentration.”It doesn’t seem to disturb him in any way. We have found, in actual fact, that it is the opposite effect. The more attention from people around him, he gets a personal buzz. He enjoys it.”Ms Wiltshire said that although her brother has a photographic memory, like many artists, he often works from a preliminary sketch.”This visit has been the most relaxing of all trips,” she said. “Normally we do 45-metre drawings. That needs much more concentration, and filling in gaps. We tend not to focus on the fact that he has a photographic memory. We focus on the fact that he is a great artist in his own right.”She said he was enjoying Bermuda. “We did a little tour and looked around,” she said. “We wanted to find a spot where it would be nice for him to draw. He loves skylines.”Beau Rivage had a beautiful view. He sketched it and it took him about 20 minutes.”Ms Wiltshire said although their family realised he had a gift from early on <> he started drawing at three years old the art wasn’t their main focus.”Our focus was making sure that he was getting the right education, and that he was being treated in a way that was acceptable for everyone,” she said. “It was about just getting on with everyday needs. “It was my father who saw that there was something that wasn’t quite right. He wasn’t bonding like I was.”Sadly, their father died when he and his sister were quite little.Mr. Wiltshire’s mother took him to a doctor, but the doctor quickly dismissed her fears. “The doctor said, ‘oh, you’re just fussing’,” said his sister. “He’ll say his first words when he is ready.”In fact, drawing came before speech for Mr. Wiltshire. He didn’t say his first word until he was five. After Mr. Wiltshire was finally diagnosed with autism, a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first two years of life, the next step was to find a school that was right for him.”It wasn’t until he started the Queenborough School that he actually started using the artwork to help his vocabulary and self-expression,” said Ms Wiltshire.”When his teachers realised he had a gift for art and an interest in architecture, they began to take him on school trips. They would take him to specific landmarks around London. Then he learned the alphabet based on London landmarks.”A for Albacore, B for Buckingham Palace, C for County Hall. His passion for buildings developed from there.”Being the older sibling by two years, Ms Wiltshire has always looked out for her brother.”I needed to understand his needs,” she said. “A lot of it was down to body language. That is quite difficult for most people to understand unless they spend 24 hours a day, every day, watching a person.”Little things mean so much. It is my job, in general, to make sure he is comfortable and not under any pressure.”Ms Wiltshire said caring for someone with special needs could take enormous amounts of patience. Progress can sometimes be painfully slow. “It was a long haul and it doesn’t happen overnight,” she said. “There are highs and lows,” she said. “Most times you think there are only lows. You wonder if you can ever get through it.”I always thought I was alone with him. In the 1970s and 1980s autism was still not commonly heard of. It was difficult to interpret what he had to other people because he looked perfectly normal, whatever normal is.”At the beginning of his art career, he toured the United Kingdom, but so many people asked about where they could find his paintings, the Wiltshires decided to open their own gallery.Some of his artwork the size of a postcard sell for around £1,500 and some of his larger paintings sell for around £12,000. He draws and paints in different mediums including pen and ink, and oil.”We have been extremely lucky,” said Ms Wiltshire. “He has made our lives extremely easy and helped us to understand him, and understand each other. I know that is not the case for every family. Some problems are very severe.”She warned that not all children with autism develop gifts. “There are so many different levels of autism,” she said. “In the gallery we have a lot of parents coming in, schools and carers.”We exchange notes. I am always interested in how they have dealt with it. It seems quite normal to me. I have had to change my career somewhat to balance.”She started out as a therapist doing semi-permanent makeup for burn victims and people with other skin issues.”I guess there is still that care element,” she said. “So whatever I have done in the past still exists now.”@bodyfrank:For more information about Mr. Wiltshire and his gallery visit www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/ . For more information about autism visit www.bermudaautism.org or e-mail basebda<>yahoo.com.