Stephen Eckersley is mad, sad and glad. He is an Australian living in central London for the past eighteen years. He has severe manic depression, with manias lasting up to a year at a time and depressions going on for years. Both these states fuel his art. His abstract paintings are wild, full of the energy and colour of his manias. His portraits reflect the intensity and focus of his mental state, with isight into the very nature of his sitters. Life drawings show the discipline of many years as a Zen meditator and practitioner and have an Oriental simplicity and clarity, with the line dividing the paper and making it one. All his work manifests a love developed in the many years spent as a spiritual practitioner and each work when successful is as one, a simplicity of heart over hand.