Born in Cheshire in 1955, Simon Pooley trained as an architect in London. He practised in Sheffield for twelve years before moving, with his wife Hilary, to Cornwall in 1992 to paint full time. Simon’s paintings have been exhibited extensively in the United Kingdom at venues including David Messum Gallery, City Gallery, Thompson’s and the Groucho Club in London. He is a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists. He recently designed and built his own timber framed studio at his home in Penwith, where the far reaching views stretch over farmland towards the sea providing constant inspiration.

“It is the colour found in the unique light of this peninsula stuck out into the Atlantic together with the landscape and the dynamic created by man living and working on it, as I do, that has given me the impulse to make the paintings for this exhibition.

“Sometimes the impulse is to make a creative response to those small internal voices that cry out for expression from time to time. Sometimes that small voice carries a yearning. Sometimes it’s a cry from the depths of my being that can’t be ignored because of its sheer force and authority. Even if they are barely discernable sounds they are the impulse to start a painting.

“Then there’s the moment during the making of a painting that is like the lifting of a mist, and everything is clear. The path can be seen, and although it may twist and turn, it is well defined. Here is my opportunity and I cannot afford to let this moment pass without discovering what the painting wants to be. It requires an intuitive response that has a particular knowing about it and it generates a creative energy that is full of potential.

“I need to be quiet, still and calm and my mind has to be open and alive to each of these moments, continually aware, ready and willing to respond to the changes that are made by each mark as the spaces in the picture evolve - not necessarily forcing the painting in an anticipated direction but being ready to change course and happily see something that is more exciting than anything that I might have predicted or prescribed.

“It’s like taking the picture on a walk and continually getting lost and then finding the way again.”