Stephen Farthing is a painter and the Rootstein Hopkins Research Professor in Drawing at the University of Arts, London. In 1990 he was elected Master of Ruskin School of Drawing at the University of Oxford, and a Professional Fellow at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 1998 he was elected member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. He originally studied at St Martin's School of Art, London. He has been teaching fine art since 1977. His paintings are exhibited in galleries throughout the world, in particular the UK, Japan and South America.