I have just been on the ferry from Sandbanks and there was a poster with your picture of the red boat . I was completely transfixed and couldn't look away ! I've since been googling all references to you and think I have fallen truly madly deeply in love with your work !

Stephen Bishop’s new paintings combine his fascination with the illusory nature of light and water with a new interest in the experience of place through the veil 
of recollection. Against the backdrop of the disorder of contemporary life Bishop’s new paintings 
glow like coloured beacons of optimism.

Stephen is part of a rising generation of artists living and working in Dorset. He finds particular inspiration in the colour and light of Purbeck. His work is bought by an increasing number of discerning collectors drawn by the depth of expression, fluency and energy it possesses. We feel sure his career will go far. Stephen works in the 'en plein air' tradition of painting of Monet and Van Gogh. His work has a sense of immediacy and life stemming from the directness of his contact with his subject matter. He has an astonishing ability to convey his reactions and feelings through the creation of images which grow in interest as they become familiar.

Hello Stephen I really am a big fan of your work and I think you are doing some of the most original, and artistically important, work in and of Dorset at the moment.

I had been looking forward to Dorset artist Stephen Bishop’s new exhibition with such verve that I kept getting the dates wrong. It opened at last on Saturday, just in time to get a quick review in this month’s column. In a departure from the semi-abstract Jurassic coastal landscapes that have been prominent in his recent work, Openings has a Spanish theme, drawing on life in and around Jerez, where Stephen spends part of each year. The majority of the work is figurative, depicting the narrow streets, buildings, forms and features typical of the region: the layer-upon-layer of paint over crumbling walls; a line of colourful washing; the keyhole curves of a church door. But the use of vibrant colours and bold brush strokes will be entirely familiar to appreciators of Stephen’s work. With these he evokes the deadpan heat of the afternoon, the close warmth of the evening, and the relief of cool interiors. But the title painting ‘Openings – Jerez’ was for me the centrepiece of the exhibition: a wonderful abstract full of deep reds and flashes of colour, invoking (for me) the gentle swaying of a sweltering afternoon, as you lie on your back in the cold sea, closing your eyes against the blinding sun.

Friday, September 08, 2006. Impasto Gusto I was bowled over by an exhibition at the Quarr Gallery in Swanage. The painter was Stephen Bishop and the exhibition was called " Purbeck Summer". This was something different. These paintings were, indeed, of the iconic views but they were painted with such energy and commitment that you couldn't but be rocked backwards by the effect. The paint was thick and layered from bright greens and blues and purples. The horizons slanted and swayed. It looked as though the artist was attacking the Purbeck landscape. A whole room full of these works and you really got something from the place that is usually missed by the chocolate box painters. You got a sense of the underlying force of nature, the oppressive summer heat of the heath, the cutting wind, the angry waves. The picture for me was of a single heathland tree, angled by the wind standing in a sea of gorse and heather with a brilliant blue streak of hills in the distant background. If anyone wanted an image of Hardy's Egdon Heath. This was it. Astonishingly, Stephen Bishop is a warm, friendly person; happy to talk about his work. Not precious at all. And, incredibly, the paintings are made en plein air. He sets up his easel and he gets the paint and sand and anything else adjacent onto the canvas until he's finished. Congratulations Stephen Bishop and the Quarr gallery for letting us see this fantastic display.

1984 Reference upon leaving Art College to pursue a career as a Fine Artist. I believe that one day Stephen will find a place in Society which he has not, but I have often dreamt of.