An artists style and vision, what they paint and how they express themselves is very often a product of their upbringing. Stephen Green was born in the mid 1950s in London. His strongly religious Irish mother and his gentle and relaxed English father and studious older brother lived in one room of a large old house in South East London The house was shared by all his extended family. Having to attend Latin mass, serve as an alter boy be constantly presented with religious pictures and all the trappings of his Irish catholic mother had a huge visual effect. This can still be seen today over half a century later with the inclusion of a church in many of his landscapes..

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Life changed dramatically for him in his early teenage years when he discovered a talent for sprinting. He quickly rose up the national rankings and gained his first senior international GB vest at the age of 16. This led to fifteen years of hard training and competition at the highest level. More importantly it enabled him to travel the world. The Cold War was in full swing during this time and much of his travel was behind the iron curtain.. This experience played a major role in his love
of viewing landscapes from bus widows as often the teams were transported across country by bus or moved around in poorly maintained eastern block planes. His travels took him as far as China during the later days of the cultural revolution.

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Throughout his life he continued to paint., a strong discipline that had been ingrained from his years as a sports man meant that daily routines were the norm. Painting was approached in the same way. This has led to a vast number of small works. Some of which are no more than quick studies other are of a longer and more considered nature. The catalogs that
accompany this short biographical piece illustrate the snatched visual nature of viewing life and places from the back of a bus. Wondering about who lives there,or standing in a clearing in a forest behind the iron curtain waiting for a dilapidated plane to land and take you to another obscure location. A life time of experiences that are hopefully captured in some
way in these paintings. Stephen Green now lives quietly on the English south coast with his family.