Samarkand Sculpture

Born in Yorkshire Simon studied graphics and photography at Sheffield Polytechnic, moving to the south coast in the 90’s, working for many years as a designer and photographer. Using illustrative techniques learnt during his time as a designer, he designed sculptural concepts purely for pleasure, wanting something to enhance his own garden. It was one of his design clients form the art world that recently encouraged him to pursue his ideas and turn his concepts into reality. Pieces are curvaceous, charmingly simple, almost two dimensional, which probably reflects his training as a graphic designer and beliefs in the ‘less is more’ approach. Most of his sculptures are crafted from sheet steel and stainless steel. He is particularly fond of the rich warm hues that you get with the more natural rusted finish with pieces being left to oxidise naturally, a process that highlights the intrinsic beauty of the material as the finish evolves with time.
 Simon is at home working with steel and engineering processes. It’s something that is in his blood having grown up near Sheffield, spending his early years tinkering in his grandfather's engineering workshop and working his summer holidays in the steel works whilst studying in Sheffield. He still make frequent visits back to his roots, an area that he has a great affection for, making use of the local trades wherever possible when creating his work.