SIMON BLACKWOOD

Simon Blackwood is a painter and picture restorer living in the Scottish Borders. He has exhibited widely throughout the UK and Europe.

‘My paintings are evocations of light inspired by the relationship of the lover with the beautiful. Founded in a lyricism of colour, to a degree they are like the compositions of the musician transformed into colour, or inclining toward the taste of the chef de cuisine when he creates a meal. They are not impressions of something but, rather, expressions emanating from the joy of seeing. In a sense the object [of perception] is unimportant and yet it grounds the paintings, and creates a context for the expression which would not be possible in an object-transcending abstraction. Fashion is not the creed here, nor 'contemporary' the vernacular. From this point of view there is a broader perspective available to us, one which Monet found in the spirituality of water and Turner found in (and was transported by) Light’.

CV

  • 1965/67 Colchester School of Art - Dip AD Foundation - tutors: Peter Blake, Francis Bacon, John Nash amongst others.
  • 1967/70 Coventry School of Art
  • 1971/72 Studied under John.G.Bennett at the Academy for Continuous Education at Sherborne in Gloucestershire
  • 1972/80 Founder member of the Beshara Design Centre, the Industrial Buildings Preservation Trust and Rotherhithe Workshops Ltd in London.
  • 1976 Opened the Riverside Studio Dance Centre in Rotherhithe
  • 1976 Attended the Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education Gloucestershire.
  • 1981 Moved to the Scottish Borders to set up a studio/gallery and a picture conservation business.
  • 1988 Established a new studio overlooking the Bosphorus in Istanbul - Turkey.
  • 1989 Commissioned to live in Provence to work on a series of seven paintings for the interior of the recently restored Chateau du Tourreau, Vaucluse.
  • 1990 - present Painting in Turkey, Scotland, France and USA. Restoring paintings on canvas and panel and works on paper in the UK.

Solo Exhibitions

  • 1985 Dundas Gallery, Carlisle - 'Bus-stop' series;
  • 1986 Netherbow Arts Centre, Carlisle - 'Aquatic Light' series;
  • 1989 Anthony Mould Ltd, New Bond Street, London - 'the Beauties of the Bosphorus' series;
  • 1991 Micheal Parkin Fine Art Ltd, Motcombe Street, London - oils and pastels;
  • 1992 William Hardy Gallery, Glasgow;
  • 1992 Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford, Oxon.;
  • 1993 Kusav Arts - Istanbul, Turkey;
  • 1994 Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford, Oxon.;
  • 1996 Cynthia Bourne Gallery, London;
  • 2006 Foss Fine Arts, London.


SIMON BLACKWOOD

CAMBER SANDS

Oil on Canvas

76 x 91cm

SIMON BLACKWOOD

ANGELS OF SPRING

Oil on Canvas

25 x 30cm (10 x 12)

SIMON BLACKWOOD

WILD AZALEAS I

Pastel

17 x 20in

SIMON BLACKWOOD

WILD AZALEAS II

Pastel

17 x 20in

SIMON BLACKWOOD

WHITTON EDGE

Pastel

24 x 23in

SIMON BLACKWOOD

SPRING AT THE WELLS

Oil on Canvas

74 x 60cm (29 x 24in)

SIMON BLACKWOOD

WILD GARDEN

Oil on Canvas

69 x 59cm (27 x 23in)