Member Profiles

Stephen is a photographer and wood worker, although his artistic skills cover a broad range of activities including graphic design, illustration, set design, calligraphy and textiles.

After a foundation year at college, Stephen went on to study furniture design and making with the aim of running his own business. As a designer and furniture maker, Stephen has produced some indescribably beautiful pieces for both inside and outside the home. Behind every piece there lies a story - from inception to completion. Stephen works on individual and private commission from collectors in the UK and the USA.

Stephen also works as a social occasion photographer and has been asked to photograph many weddings all over the UK and as far as Chile. He also creates brochures that advertise his furniture making, from his own photographs. Stephen says: "Working with wood or taking photographs is what I do, and it is a big part of who I am. I love to respond to a brief, or simply play and create just like our Heavenly Father does."

A few years ago Stephen was invited to move his business into a public school and become a designer in residence. In 2007 he embarked on a design and build project - the construction of an Eco Studio - which would be the first pole building in the grounds of any school campus in the UK, Cranleigh School in Surrey. The building is to be a teaching space to inspire and is designed on green sustainable principles: building it from 130 chestnut tree poles cut from the coppice woods of West Sussex, using recycled newspaper for insulation, heating the building by a wood pellet boiler and harvesting rain water, for watering the schools flower beds, from the roof. He continues: "It is an amazing experience and I have felt God’s power and presence in very positive ways, which has amazed many who know me, not least Christians."

Stephen has been a member of ACG since 1980, and has attended many events over the years. One that he remembers well is a conference the ACG ran about promoting yourself and your work, where different topics were covered in small groups with a lecture or two alongside. Stephen comments: "That was a good practical helpful day and I always wished there were more of those that would help those starting out." These types of events were the forerunner to the Mentoring Project, an ACG scheme which Stephen appreciates, "had it been possible I would have loved to have helped with some mentoring, as encouraging others is dear to my heart."

Stephen is one of ACG’s regional members, who doesn’t often have the chance to visit the London meetings, but he nonetheless values his membership, "I haven’t been to anything for a while, but I am just encouraged to know that you are all there. It makes one realise one is not alone in the walk of the Christian Artist."

To see some of Stephen’s work, visit www.stephenowen.com.

 

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