Steven Clark's very black and white.

'I don't watch telly. Too much doom and gloom. It's shocking.”

He doesn't have a computer or cellphone. 'No Facebook or texts. It's not for me.” And he doesn't drive, he takes the bus.

All sounds a bit Luddite. But give Steven Clark a paint brush, hand him some acrylics and stand him before canvas and easel and suddenly that black and white world erupts in living colour. Deep, rich colour. Landscapes and seascapes in the minutest technical detail.

'This is the way I express myself,” says the Te Puke artist, brandishing a paintbrush at the reporter.

And his latest ‘expression', it looks like a slice of Fiordland, is coming together at ‘Constables' – home of the Te Puke Art Society – in Commerce Lane, one back off main street. The work is brooding West Coast, the drift of spray off a towering waterfall, the air thick with that dank smell of impenetrable undergrowth and the chill of the fathomless blue of fiord waters.

It's grand and moody. And it's intriguing because the artist casually explains he has some difficulties.

'I am a little autistic. I can't read or write. But I can do this,” says Steven, gesturing to his slice of Westland. 'Yes, I have this gift.”

The challenges of autism are well documented. But it's also characterised by unique strengths and differences. Steven Clark's art, his ability with a brush, maybe a manifestation of his disorder.

'Sometimes I use a photograph as reference, sometimes a postcard. But sometimes I just have an image in my head and I go to the canvas and paint. Sometimes those images come to me in my dreams.”

There's a hint of the savant – a condition in which a person with a developmental disability demonstrates profound, even prodigious abilities, far in excess of what is considered normal. Remember Dustin Hoffman in ‘The Rain Man.'

Steven Clark probably wouldn't like the comparison but his work is prodigious for an artist who is self- taught. His parents didn't paint, nor did his grandparents who raised him. 'But it must have come from somewhere,” says Steven.

He remembers well when his painting started. He was just 15 and he's still got that picture of Mount Taranaki. He put it away safely.

'One Sunday morning, just after Easter in 1986 I said to myself ‘I am going to do something different'. I went down the road and bought some cheap acrylic paints and cardboard.” He had started. 'And I have just got better and better and better.”

Steven is regularly drawn to Mount Tarawera. 'One my favourite spots.” He has painted the mountain 46 times. 'I go and look at it from a different aspect, then go home and paint it.” Yes, from memory. Steven Clark held an exhibition in Taupo. 'Went very well.” He has also held a couple of exhibitions in Rotorua. 'Went very well.” And all the Mount Tarawera paintings sold.

He sold a big work in 2011 for $7000, recently three works to a chap in Hamilton for a few thousand dollars and he has also done a few commissions. And a few drawings.

Every Thursday morning Steven Clark can be found at ‘Constables', the historic courthouse cum police station cum home to the Te Puke Art Society. 'They are very good company. Very supportive. And they do very nice work too.”

Steven Clark is an artist with strong and set opinions and he enjoys sharing them – whether it be global warming or Auckland's transport woes. And he knows what he likes and doesn't like. And he doesn't like abstract art. 'Rubbish, nonsense.”

The Te Puke Art Society at ‘Constables' is open Thursdays from 9:30am to noon and usually the last Saturday of the month from 10am to 1pm. Outside those times call Marie 0276606213 or Jo 0272301903 .

Steven's work is well worth stopping by for.