Simon Edwards spent most of his childhood in the countryside – living with his family in West Melton until he was 12 and then on a farm in Hororata, just outside of Ōtautahi Christchurch. Simon gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, in 1997 and has worked as a fulltime artist, exhibiting regularly, since 1998.
Through layers of oil paint, vigorously rubbed, scraped, brushed and glazed, Simon conjures mountains, valleys, lakes, and seas, situated under looming skies that feel familiar to us all. Working between the dark of black and bright of white, Simon’s palette moves fluidly from muted tones to bright jewel-like hues; dependent on the location being painted and the emotions being evoked.
His works on aluminium composite panel are atmospherically-charged paintings, created from both his imagination and real life, choosing to paint both en plein air and in his studio. In preparation for a body of work, Simon will visit an area and spend 3-5 days on location; absorbing the place; sketching and painting en plein air, and photographing. Sometimes his preparatory works include collage-views of ridgelines, snowy peaks, and rivers – pieced together from sketches and photos taken whilst walking in the interior. He relentlessly gathers, reworks, and hones his observations in the field before committing to a composition, either in situ or back in his studio, that speaks of the magic felt while in the landscape.
Whether paintings, charcoal drawings, or earlier photographic collages, Simon’s works extend beyond the representational and realist landscape genres, instead becoming responses to the sublime and aspiring; hinting at how a location and place impacts on his psyche. His works can leave the viewer feeling they know the place in front of them so well, yet they can’t quite pinpoint the exact location and only identify the broader geographical area; a single view can be at once familiar yet mystical, somewhat like experiencing the New Zealand landscape itself.
Simon’s works can remind the viewer of Romantic painters such as J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, yet Edwards interestingly identifies as a Modernist painter, stating "the landscape has been the source of my work ... the work places itself somewhere between a modernistic reliance on the essential qualities [of the materials and methods] of painting and an awareness of traditional forms of the landscape. I use this as a departure point, entering into a process of layering and rubbing back, setting up a dialogue between the medium, the landscape, and myself. The work becomes a result of reacting to what is happening on the surface at the time, and building on chance effects that present themselves, contributing to a sense of space, distance and movement."
Edwards continues to work and live in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, with his wife and sons. He is represented in many national collections, including the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.