ART lovers are making a beeline for Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham in record numbers to see one of the most stunning exhibitions the venue has ever staged.

It features the work of the world’s most famous autistic artist, Stephen Wiltshire.

The exhibition, which was officially opened by actress and president of the National Autistic Society, Jane Asher, at a packed gallery on Thursday, (October 2), has attracted droves of visitors already.

In just two and a half hours on Sunday alone, over 800 people passed through the doors. Nearly 1,000 people visited that day.

Cllr Roger Avins, Richmond’s cabinet member for libraries, sport, art and leisure, who was among the speakers at the opening ceremony, said: "This exhibition is proving a fantastic success, one of the most popular ever held at the gallery.

"The many visitors have a chance to admire the tremendous work of one of the world’s most remarkable artists. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Stephen’s works all under one roof."

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."

Stephen, who has autism, was mute as a child and communicated largely through drawing on scraps of paper.

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 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 turn to shadow and lights, in Times Square the neon advertising signs, 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.

The exhibition, entitled ‘Not a Camera: The Unique Vision of Stephen Wiltshire’, is on until November 30.

It is the largest retrospective exhibition so far of the artist’s work. Admission is free. Orleans House Gallery is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 1pm to 4.30pm, and from 2pm to 4.30pm on Sundays.