I had a stroke and it turned me into an artist
A HOSPITAL handyman has revealed how he woke up after a stroke with an incredible new talent for painting.
Wayne Sheppard, 47, who says he could not even draw ‘basic shapes’ before he collapsed at work in December 2016, now sells his pieces for up to £400 a time.
Doctors believe the stroke damaged a part of the brain associated with creativity, which allowed his ‘creative processes to flourish’.
Mr Sheppard said: ‘I remember waking up in hospital the next morning with this sudden urge to draw. I didn’t know what I was doing but I felt like I needed to do it. I felt possessed.
‘I was never able to draw before. I even struggled to draw the basics, like a circle and a square. And now all of a sudden people are paying me.
‘Most of the time I don’t know what I’m going to paint. As soon as I put my paintbrush to paper or canvas the pictures just come alive and before long there’s an image.’
Mr Sheppard, from Plumstead, south-east London, was admitted to hospital after he collapsed at work. As well as suffering a stroke, a CT scan also revealed he had non-hodgkin lymphoma – a rare cancer of the blood and immune system.
He credits his new hobby with helping him face ill-health, and now spends at least ten hours a day on his quirky works of art while his home is stuffed with canvases.
Dr David Alexander Dickie, from the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, said: ‘Damage to certain areas of the brain, for example in the frontal lobe, may limit inhibitory control and allow creative processes to flourish.
‘However, I would not recommend any budding artists attempt to damage their frontal lobe, as these cases are extremely rare.
‘Changes in mood are common after a stroke, and this may also contribute to the artistic process.’