Simon M Smith

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Winter collection 2017/18

Making arrangements

Organic form - Winter 2018/19

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Simon works in a studio at the bottom of a productive garden.  Using a fine-nibbed permanent marker he makes a lot of drawings from direct observation of flowers and leaves on tissue paper from unwanted dress patterns. Once the canvas is primed he starts pasting the tissue paper onto the surface.  He often incorporates the printed lines on the dress patterns to give structure to his work: to make shapes and build some sort of framework to play off other elements, sometimes leaving words or numbers from the patterns as part of the composition.

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Simon uses acrylic paint primarily because it is quick drying. He makes changes rapidly while working, particularly in the early stages of painting and builds his pictures in layers of tissue and paint.  It's important, therefore, to use materials that the PVA solution will adhere to well.

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As the painting progresses Simon draws and redraws shapes on the canvas, adding new drawn images on tissue paper and making continual corrections.  He has a simple, workmanlike approach to painting: when he goes into the studio he does what he can see needs doing.  That leads him to the next thing and that's how he progresses.

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Because Simon has no predetermined goal when he starts work he only knows it is finished when it seems there is nothing else to do: the painting has found its own reason for existing and makes sense according to its own internal logic.

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Simon studied Fine Art at Manchester Polytechnic and the University of Reading.

During the last twenty years he has shown work at The Royal Academy, The Mall gallery, in Cork Street, The Affordable Art Fair, in Singapore, Madrid, Brussels and Berlin as well as various galleries throughout Britain.  His last solo show was at King's Lynn Arts Centre.

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www.simonmsmith.co.uk