AN ARTIST who gained celebrity as a small boy for his incredible ability to draw architecture and cityscapes in minute detail, often from an aerial view, is the subject of an exhibition at Orleans House Gallery.

‘Not a Camera, The Unique Voice of Stephen Wiltshire’ is at Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham, from September 27 to November 30. The exhibition, which presents an overview of the artist’s work as he approaches 30, has been put together by Mark de Novellis.

He said: "The exhibition maps his development from early caricatures, imaginative scenes of earthquakes and cars, through to more familiar drawings of buildings and the urban landscape. New commissions of local scenes complement lesser known works in other exploratory media including remarkable oil paintings of America, Wiltshire’s spiritual homeland."

Wiltshire, who has autism, was mute as a child and communicated largely through drawing on scraps of paper. The late Margaret Hewson who together with Andrew Hewson ran John Johnson Author’s Agents, was introduced to Stephen Wiltshire in 1987 by Sir Hugh Casson and represented him since that date.

Sir Hugh Casson described Wiltshire as "possibly the best child artist in Britain".

He said: "Every now and then, a rocket of young talent explodes and continues to shower us with its sparks. Stephen Wiltshire - who was born with severe speech difficulties - is one of these rockets. A natural gift for drawing was unearthed by his teachers and nourished until it became not so much the medium as the message itself - a personal and passionate form of communication."

For the introduction, an excerpt has been taken from the introduction to Stephen Wiltshire’s American Dream, in which Margaret Hewson writes: "Stephen, like many other autistic children, was mute as a child. From the age of five years old, he communicated to the world by drawing on scraps of paper. Children normally draw, not an aerial view, not the rear or the side elevation, but a simple front view.

"This is because children normally draw those normal symbolic forms which are essentially conceptual. Stephen was different. His inability to draw those normal symbolic forms might suggest that he draws not what he knows but what he sees, although it must be stated that Stephen’s early drawings which illustrate two-dimensional spaces, are symbolic in themselves."

The exhibition develops themes explored in previous exhibitions at Orleans House, including Cynthia Pell (1999), Private Worlds: Outside and Visionary Art (2001), Beyond Reason: Aidan Shingler (2002) and the ongoing Art and Soul exhibitions and activities, challenging displays which examined and embraced the outer regions of artistic production and introducing marginalised areas of the arts to a wider audience.

Over the last few months, the artist has produced topographical views of Richmond upon Thames. On numerous occasions he was stopped by visitors from around the world who recognised him and his work, first brought to the public’s attention in the BBC documentary The Foolish Wise Ones (1987).

Mark de Novellis writes: "Holding his pen awkwardly, starting his creation from any random point, sometimes not seemingly looking at the view before him, Wiltshire is constantly absorbing and translating sensations. From this process emerges spontaneous sketches and studied works from life or the imagination.

"He is not a passive camera, recording and reflecting his environment. He shapes it, moulds it, interprets it - with dexterity, possession, virtuosity, style."

The exhibition catalogue makes dizzy reading as one flicks through the highly animated drawings of buildings, aerial views of cityscapes. As seen in his pen drawing of the Gum department store in Moscow from 1990, Stephen Wiltshire not only captures architecture and landscapes but also the tiny characters who move through them, in the mall we see their varied speeds and postures, hands in pockets, arm in arm, window shopping.

When looking at his amazing representations of the New York Skyline, The Chrysler Building, The Chicago Skyline and the West Coast it becomes clear why the US has been described as his ‘spiritual home’. In his oil paintings the attention to detail seems to turns to shadow and lights, in Times Square the neon advertising signs and the lights and movements of traffic.

In Richmond he has drawn this year ‘The View from Richmond Hill’, St Mary’s Twickenham, Ham House, Marble Hill House, ‘The Coach House in Marble Hill Park’ and Orleans House Gallery.