Thanks to the AE2 and AE3 classes from BROWNS English Language School, Brisbane for sharing their fantastic excursion with us.
BROWNS English Language School always gives us an opportunity to have an interesting class. Last week during the afternoon class we went on an excursion to the State Library and there we could see beautiful art work by Stephen Wiltshire.
Stephen Wiltshire is an artist who is also an autistic savant. Although he has some difficulties with social interaction, Stephen has developed an ability in a particular area and is a kind of genius. In his specific case, he developed a gift to draw. Wiltshire can draw huge cityscapes after just seeing them once for around fifteen minutes.
Wiltshire was born on April 24, 1974 in London England. When he was about three years old, he was diagnosed as autistic. His first interest in drawing appeared around five years of age and at 7 years old Stephen made his first steps to launch his lifelong career.
He arrived in Brisbane last week and took a ride in a helicopter for a few minutes to see all the city from different angles and on Saturday he started to draw the city. Stephen spent just 3 days drawing the city. Stephen had done a wonderful job. It’s amazing how he can draw so perfectly after just seeing something for a few minutes. There is a lot of detail in each building, each tree and it all looks real. The drawing is on a big stand at the State Library that is around 3 metres by one and a half metres . The drawing is a panoramic view of Brisbane and you could spend a couple of hours just looking at the details. After that, we all came back to school and watched a documentary on TV. It explained about his life, who his family is and how the gift was discovered. Also it showed other drawings of Stephen’s and when we saw that, we could perceive how good he is and what a genius he is.
“This excursion to the Brisbane was good to learn about a lot of things, including Autism and Stephen’s life and see the drawing. Now that he has finished here in Brisbane, he is going to Sydney and another Australian city to show his great work to other
“The Brisbane excursion to the Queensland State Library was good to learn about a lot of things, including Autism and Stephen’s life and see the drawing.”
