Bart Stevens – Portrait Artist

I am Bart Stevens, a self-taught portrait artist.

My journey started more than half a century ago. In the beginning I was probably lacking a little courrage, because rather than setting sail in my own little boat I chose to get on the big gleaming seaship provided by the system. The route was all mapped out! No further questions were to be asked and there was absolutely no possibility to step out of the line. I was all set for a very decent little life… Until the day a serious desease put my journey on hold and confined me to my hospital bed. Unable to move for several long weeks, I could do nothing but wonder… Why did I get stuck here? How to get out of this trap ? Did all this make any sense at all ? However hard I tried to think,… nothing. My brain just didn’t know where to go from here. My body on the contrary, knew exactly what to do!

One morning, I felt my hand reaching out for the pencil and sheet of paper that somebody had put on my bedside table and without really knowing what I was doing, I drew a first line, then a second, until, to my utter amazement, a face appeared.

This is how at the age de 44 I started to draw portraits… The day reason kept silent and my body started to talk. Not with words but through each gaze that emerges on my canvas… It is in their reflexion that I finally see the path I need to follow.