Stephen has worked for museums and universities for around thirty years and still carries on this work as a natural history conservator and preparator complimenting his main interest and specialization in palaeobotanical art work. Recently he was working on a body of work for an exhibition of fossil leaves from the Tertiary Period which are housed in the National Museum of Scotland. These were collected from Spitsbergen in the late 1800s and early 1900s by the explorer Bruce.