Stephen Rose attended the Medway College of Art, Cheltenham College of Art (BA Hons.) The British School in Rome and the Royal Academy where he took his diploma in Fine Art.

He has won the British Institute Award 1983, the Royal Academy Painting Prize 1984, the Landseer Scholarship 1985, the Richard Ford Traveling Scholarship 1986 (studying at the Prado, Madrid) the Royal Overseas League International Painting competition traveling prize 1987 (to travel and work extensively in Northern India). In 1992 Stephen was made a member of the Art Workers' Guild in Bloomsbury, London.
He has exhibited at the Summer Exhibition, The Royal Overseas League annual exhibition, the Mall Galleries, the Royal Portrait Society exhibition and the BP Portrait competition.
Stephen held a solo exhibition at Target Partners, Munich, June 2001.
Commissions undertaken have included:
Portrait for the Hambro Bank
Series of work for Christopher Lloyd of Great Dixter
Portrait for Kurt Bettin, Director of Amalgamated German Industries
Mosaic Shrine, Catholic Church, Buxton
Numerous works in private collections in Europe, Scandinavia, U.S.A. and the U.K.