Simon works in a variety of mediums, including oil, acrylic, watercolour, charcoal, pencil and ink. His subject matter is equally diverse, sometimes following a traditional and measured approach through life drawing, still lifes and landscapes.
Conversely, he makes more instinctive and expressive drawings , depicting animals and people in the day-to-day of life, caught in moments which are surreal and satirical.
In more ambitious pieces, with unusual narratives, strange animals are seen to parade the streets of Preston, holding picnics on Tithebarn Street or running through the grounds of Whittingham Hospital. The narratives drift between comedy and tragedy; reality and fantasy; the past and the present.
He sees the more successful paintings as surreal and naïve evocations of the past, nostalgic childhood memories perhaps, merged with the absurd impulses, dark humour and cynicism of age.
Selected Exhibitions:
Solo Exhibitions:
‘A Different Perspective’, Blott Art Studios, Blackpool, 2009
They Eat Culture Salon Event 2, The Continental, Preston, 2010
‘Down the Garden Path’,drawings & etchings, Harris Museum, Preston, Feb-April 2013
Solo Exhibition at The Old Parsonage, Didsbury, May- June 2014
‘Adventure in the Northern Landscape’, Stockport Art Gallery, Stockport, August- Sept 2014
Group Exhibitions:
‘Mirror, Message, Manifestation’,Long Gallery, Newcastle, 1994
Northern Graduates Exhibition, RCA, London, 1995
Colin Jellicoe Gallery 45th Anniversary Exhibition, Manchester, 2008-2009
Blott @ FYC, FYC Creatives, Blackpool, 2009
‘Drawing Perspectives’, Everyman Art Gallery, Chorlton, 2011
‘Art 24’, St. Peter’s Assembley Rooms, Hale, 2011
‘Dogs in the Picture’, Corte-Real Gallery, Paderne, Portugal, 2012
‘Printessentials’, with Artlab Contemporary Print, Astley Hall, Chorley, May-June 2012
‘Beyond Appearances, Diversity of Drawing’, Oxheys Mill Studios, Preston, June 2013
‘Journeys’, with Artlab Contemporary Print, The Gallery at St. Georges House, Bolton, Feb- April 2014
‘Between the Lines’, Art Exhibition by Simon Plum and Lauretta Rapley, Oxheys Mill Studios, Preston, April-May 2014