This weekend's painting...
Fanzine Interview
I was recently contacted by a French fanzine, called 'Presences D'Esprits' who were running an Edgar Rice Burroughs special edition. They asked to use one of my paintings for the cover as well as an interview about my art, journey and process. At first I was a bit surprised, but after checking out the magazines' website I realized what an honour it was to be included with a whole host of other great artists that I admire.
Last Friday's Lifestudy
Finally made it out to a life drawing class after finishing up a recent commission.
Today's Master Study
Getting back into the swing of thing's after the holidays so I thought I'd do a quick master study.
Final Demon Born: Ascent Painting
So I totally forgot to put this finished painting on my blog from early November, oops! Oh well, it's here now and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. During the course of completing this painting, I had to make a number of design choices that weren't on the sketch so it took a little longer than it normally would but at least these thing's are now setup ready for the next painting!
Demon Born Sketch #3
Here’s the third painting idea for my Demon Born character - Ascent. Think I might take this one to a more finished stage.
Demon Born - Sketch #2
Here’s the second painting idea for my Demon Born character - Meeting with the boss...
Tonight's Sketch - Demon Born
Been playing around with a new character which I've called 'Demon Born' for now... The character resides in one of the nine rings of hell, well until the devil grants him leave to walk the Earth on some sort of quest which I'm still figuring out lol. Anyway, enough rambling, here's my first painting idea for this character:)
Vows
So here's my latest painting 'Vows' which I've literally just finished and there's a story behind this one. Just before we walked down the aisle, my wife wanted to rewrite her vows on some nicer paper. As I was waiting for her, it suddenly struck me that the scene was perfect for a wonderful painting and so I grabbed my camera and took a photo. I actually forgot about the photo until weeks later when I was going through my pictures. When I saw the picture again I decided to do a painting and this is the result. Before I started this piece I really wanted to improve my folds and drapery knowledge and, it turns out, this painting was the perfect learning experience! Gotta say, this was a really challenging piece but I'm pretty happy with the final painting overall...
Jan
Just finished up the latest portrait and this time it's my new father-in-law Jan. This particular portrait was pretty challenging and a good way to get back into the swing of all thing's painting after my vacation:)
Recent Commission
Last year I was commissioned to do a series of portraits for an upcoming book about Noah's Ark, entitled 'Full Moon Over Noah's Ark'. And this portrait, of Irving Finkel, is my favourite piece from that project.
Recent Masterstudy
In the middle of paintings so I decided to do another master study. I really need to do a lot more of these as I find I learn quite a lot from everyone of them. I will say that the studies of Sargent's painting's are always the most challenging and rewarding.
Today's Weird Lunchtime Sketch
Most days I try to do some sort of sketch or master study on my lunch break and this is todays somewhat bizarre creation. I've got not idea what it is or why it's there but I liked it so I posted it.
Latest Painting
For a while now I've been trying to figure out exactly what I like to paint, and I tried a lot of different things. Turns out I really like painting characters like this guy and fine art pieces! This was a lot fun to do and I kinda went all out on this one. The painting process seemed to take a lot less time and, in some ways, seemed to almost paint itself. So, I guess you'll be seeing more of these types of paintings on my site in the future.
Last Weekend's Life Study
Dragged myself outta bed last Sunday morning, after I'd gone to a gallery show in Seattle the night before, and headed down to my local life drawing studio. I was lucky enough to attend the Krab Jab Studio show 'Rituals: The Art of Sara Winters and Cynthia Sheppard' and was really inspired to get back on the life drawing horse. Haven't really been terribly consistent with my life studies over the last couple of years so I decided that I really wanted to get back into it. I really enjoy the time constraints of completing a painting with a live model and then just letting it go, instead of endlessly 'tinkering' with something until it's 'perfect'. I also find it improves my other work with subleties that I might not otherwise include with photographic reference. So here's my effort from Sunday's class. Hopefully I'll have a lot more of these to show in the coming months:)
'Mick' 1940 - 2016
My father recently passed away after a fall and then spending months in hospital. He was 75. I thought that we'd have more time together but it just didn't work out that way.
My dad was many things to me. As a boy, he was my hero and encouraged my life long love of art and movies. I have fond memories of us spending Saturday afternoons watching classic films together. As a teenager he bought me my first cassette tape and so was born my love of music and later, the guitar. As a man, he became my confidant and trusted advisor. A few years back I was going through some rough times and he was always around with a shoulder to lean on, not sure where I'd be today without him .
This painting is how I'll always remember my dad, at the drawing board hard at work.
Farewell.
Unleashed - Final Painting
Finally finished my first ever personal painting and here it is! Followed the sketch fairly closely but, as always, there were a few twists and turns before the finish line on this one.
Weekend Life-study
A few days ago I realized that the last time I'd sat down and done some life drawing was back in early December! So I made the time, got back in the saddle and here's the first study of 2016.
Welcome!
Hi there, and welcome to my new site. I'm really excited to be able to share all of my work and what I'm up to on my blog. Please check back for regular updates and thanks for stopping by.
Simon.
Personal Work
Last year I started creating something I'd never really done before, personal work. When I say personal work, I mean painted sketches that directly talked about thing's that have happened to me in my life. But instead of just trying to paint the events verbatim, I took those experiences and transported them into my preferred environment which is the fantasy world. More specifically, kind of a medieval/viking type setting. I'm going to be doing 7-8 of these pieces, most of which I've already sketched out, and working them up into finished paintings. When I started doing these I figured it'd be a nice little diversion from the usual things I was painting... what I didn't realize at the time was just how therapeutic and cathartic they were going to be. In fact, I'm more excited about working on these paintings than anything else. Pictured here is the first of those personal sketches entitled 'Unleashed'.
