Mani Evening Print

About Phillip Robert Simpson: I was born in the industrial town of Middlesbrough in the North East of England, a town that had a rich association with Shipbuilding and Steel Production from the 1950's to the mid 1980's. The towns history and economy since the 1800's was built on iron works in the industrial revolution forging a strong relationship with the sea and the vessels that sailed the world in the last two centuries. This rich heritage is in my blood and it saw my family have a strong relationship with maritime engineering as my father and his father worked in the local shipyard, where I followed in their footsteps as a young engineer. From a very early age I had the ability to draw and paint and show my creative side and it developed throughout my school years. I was prevented from studying art as a career because my parents could not afford to see me through further education so I educated, trained and developed my artistic skills myself. However, I did not realize that something that came natural to me would come to fruition at such a late stage of my life. I fell in love with engineering and that love led me to University and eventually to work with the British Royal Navy as an Engineering Instructor. It was here that my talent for art shone and in 2001 my art became popular amongst my students, colleagues and their relatives gaining modest commissions painting and drawing such diverse requests as family pets, graduation portraits, family portraits and my rock n roll art was and still is popular. But; my most popular works were and still are the oil paintings of Naval ships and submarines from World War 2 to the present day. Like so many artists I have no formal qualifications, no degree or Phd in any art related subject. I am purely self taught and I have learned and developed as an artist by self study and by doing over many years since gaining my art grades at secondary school where I was one of only two students in my year chosen to gain an O' Level in art at the age of 16 in 1977. Since then what I have learned throughout my life and come to appreciate more than anything is that if my art work brings joy or touches the hearts and souls of those I work for in whatever way then I am happy to have brought that joy to them and touched their hearts and souls in a most profound manner. This for me is the true meaning of art.