ARTIST BIO

I hope the artworks say it all, however, just in case, this is the blurb....
I am a traditional, realist artist. I love watercolour but adore pastel. I trained as a printmaker, but my surroundings drew me to paint. I have been a full time teacher of Art for 35 years, for many of these years, I managed Art faculties in secondary colleges. My students, I think, benefited from my constant output, and the refining of my skills. Formal training included a Diploma of Education, Diploma of Art and Design [Printmaking], Graduate Diploma in Information Technology Education, Certificate IV in Assessment & Workplace Training, and so on. I have taught photography, print, painting, drawing, illustration and VET multimedia throughout my career, and heaps more..

Despite the usual art school grounding, which rarely gives you real skills, and like many artists of the time, I am predominantly self-taught in oil, watercolour and pastel. A spell with the late Graham Moore, master tonal oil painter and exponent of the ‘Meldrum School’, did much to instil a belief in the sound theory of tonal painting. I drew when a young boy, but never knew where it would take me.

As it would happen, I started my painting career in what you might call a ‘baptism of fire’ as a teenager, standing atop the bare ridges of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, painting in oils with my father in the blazing sun. The searing heat of summer did nothing to quell my desire to paint. We travelled a lot as a family and became a family of painters. I have held 23 solo exhibitions, participating in group and charity exhibitions also. I am currently planning my next adventure in paint.

Watercolour took over from oils and led my eye to rural subjects of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Far North Queensland. My recent romance with pastel focusses on the diversity of the Australian landscape, the subtle grandeur of its rugged mountain ranges, rain forests, coastal slopes, in fact anything that ‘speaks the Australian light to me’. Recent travelling has taken me to exhilirating places around the world, inspiring artworks that capture the honest beauty of medieval fishing villages, the rainswept hustle and bustle of London streets or the mysterious moods of Venice and its seemingly ancient light. Other challenges await. My work receives many awards and acquisitive prizes including a number of ‘Best Watercolour’, ‘Best Pastel’, ’Best in Show’ and ‘Outstanding Landscape’ awards as well as corporate and private commissions. Anyway, let the paintings tell the remaining story. I can also be found at http://www.simonbrownartist.com