Meet the artist
Molly Stephs (b. 1994) is a self-taught artist based on the north coast of Cornwall. Inspired by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Molly’s style centres on the use of light, shade, colour and impasto to convey lived emotion and experience. Through her work, Molly captures the universal moments and emotions of the human experience, building connection with the viewer by capturing the intensity and, often, contrasting duality of what it is to be a human; love and grief, joy and rage, intimacy and loneliness. It is her strong belief that we are uniquely evolved for connection and community, with art a primal means for depicting our shared experience and what it is to be fundamentally human: I lived this, I see you. As her practice develops, Molly is exploring a range of themes to get to the heart of the human experience and, ultimately, connect with you, the viewer on a real, emotional level.
Biography
Interested in human behaviour from a young age, Molly studied social and cultural psychology at the University of Bristol and the London School of Economics before beginning a career in communications and PR as a specialist in health behaviour. Following a successful stint in this industry, Molly returned to art in summer 2025, seeking a means to heal, ground and reconnect with herself following a period of upheaval. The transformative effect of art, both as a viewer and as a creator, was profound and in October 2025 Molly became a full time artist.
Since practicing full-time, Molly was selected for the 2026 Porthmeor Programme at the St Ives School of Painting and is completing the programme throughout this year. She is excited to share her work more broadly throughout 2026 and beyond.