Stephen Kaiwe's artwork of New Guinean natives commenced in the early 1970's with a couple of pencil drawings of the local children.

This small trickle of sketches became a flood in 1980 when Stephen's full-time preoccupation with these people and their customs resulted in a continuous stream of paintings which clearly showed the uncomplicated and down-to-earth nature of each individual who was lucky enough to be chosen as a subject.

Since 1980, the paintings of Stephen Kaiwe have been appearing in hotel lobbies, private galleries and exhibitions throughout Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Nowadays his works are usually sold prior to completion and in an endeavour to share the simple beauty of his creations with a keen audience of people in other countries of the world, David Paterson Art is proud to publish Stephen Kaiwe's first series of signed and numbered limited editon reproductions of original paintings which were specially commissioned for this purpose.

" The highlanders impressed me most," says Kaiwe, "there was always a set time for the mask, a direct purpose for dancing, for killing, for healing, for mourning - whatever..."

"I'm trying to capture what I can while I can communicate the profound realities I've experienced by looking into my brothers' eyes and seeing myself."

Stephen is married with a young daughter and lives in the hinterland which overlooks the famous Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.