Simon Barlow

My life as a professional artist began at the age of 16, when I sold a painting of a Peregrine Falcon to a school friend's parents, while at boarding school in the Zimbabwean bush. Inspired by an artist friend, our mutual hobby of egg-collecting, and a love of all things natural, bird painting soon occupied me more than school work. Even after graduating from art school with a diploma in graphic design, painting birds was preferable to working in an advertising agency.
Living and working in the Cape, South Africa, I promoted my work holding solo exhibitions, which attracted commissions and established my career in the genre. The highlight of that period was the publication of Gamebirds of Southern Africa, now in it's second edition, and described here.
After moving to Australia, I changed my genre and medium. From delicate birds painted with fine sable brushes in watercolour, I moved to painting large floral studies with bristle brushes and acrylic. This was prompted not only by the financial necessities of living in a new country and working in a different market, but it was the perfect opportunity to start 'painting'- which I had always wanted to do. Since then, painting mainly floral studies has been the vehicle via which I ha...

Diploma Graphic Design, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

2011 Solo Exhibition, Newport, Sydney
2010 Solo Exhibition, Newport, Sydney
2008 Solo Exhibition, Newport, Sydney
2007 Solo Exhibition, Avalon, Sydney
Solo Exhibition, Depot Gallery, Dank St WATERLOO
2006 Solo Exhibition, Avalon, Sydney
2005 Solo Exhibition, Arthouse Hotel Sydney
2004 Solo Exhibition, Avalon, Sydney
2003 The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize exhibition, Adelaide
Wildlife Artists Society of Australasia annual exhibition, Melbourne
2002 Wildlife Artists Society of Australasia annual exhibition, Melbourne
1995 WWF Group wildlife exhibition, Johannesburg, SA
1994 Solo exhibition, “ Birds of the Cape”, Cape Town, SA
1992 Solo exhibition, “Shoreline Birds”, Cape Town, SA
1991 Solo exhibition, Highrising, Grabou, South Africa
1990 Group wildlife exhibition, Australian Museum, Sydney
1987 Solo Exhibition Renko Galleries, East London, South Africa