Artist Stephen West turns iPad into his canvas

THURSDAY, FEB. 9: They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, 69-year-old iPad artist Stephen West might have a thing or two to say about that.

The award-winning architectural designer was a self-confessed technophobe until he was given an iPad from his son. After a little direction he has learned to use the high tech device to create a body of digital art that is about to be sold online to an international audience.

His modern method of finger painting called Bermuda iArt has fascinated art lovers locally and now is ready for a worldwide stage.

It will be sold on bermuda.com’s new “online shopping mall” launched as an e-commerce getaway for Bermuda-made and inspired products to be sold around the world.

“I’ve surprised myself,” said West. “It’s amazing what can be done on this machine.  

“Sometimes I can’t believe how well pieces have turned out.”

His pictures often depict Bermuda houses and he has also created a series of greeting cards.

“When I show this to people on my iPad they say, ‘wow’ – which is very nice to hear.  

“They say, ‘how did you do this?’  And I say ‘with my index finger on my left hand’. The reaction is great. People are so amazed.”

A new web video, right, was produced this month to show the world how Stephen West creates iArt pieces. Nine products — either 8” by 10” prints or 4” by 6” cards — are being made available for the launch of bermuda.com Shop. More original pieces are almost complete and will be offered soon.

Bermuda.com general manager Glenn Jones said: “Small business owners in Bermuda — particularly artists — are looking for low cost solutions to expose their products to the widest possible audience.  

“Bermuda.com Shop meets that objective.  We get tens of thousands of international web visits every month and now we have the capacity to turn those visitors into actual sales.”

It’s anticipated that bermuda.com Shop will become a popular destination for people around the world who love Bermuda-made foods, arts and crafts.

Mr. Jones added: “Bermuda.com Shop can eventually be like Amazon.com, except in our case the product offerings will have one common theme — Bermuda.”

bermuda.com is part of MediaHouse which owns the Bermuda Sun.