About Simon Fowler

ABOUT ME

I am influenced by the
great outdoors!

I was born in Bristol in 1959 and lived and worked there most of my life.
My partner and I moved to Teignmouth five years ago and have every intention to stay in Devon.
My interest in painting started as a young boy, I could draw as soon as I was strong enough to hold a pencil, so by the time I got into my early teens after years of watching my grandfather paint, he encouraged me to pick up a brush and start to get to know how to paint.
His guidance along with other artist family members helped me develop my own style, which has continued to evolve to this day.

I am influenced by the great outdoors, where I have spent most of my life developing an understanding and affinity with the natural world.
I trained in forestry and am a qualified horticulturist and garden designer, which has greatly influenced my art.
I also spent some years building and restoring mostly traditional boats which lead me into woodcarving and sculpture, further adding more experiences for my art to draw on.
While living in Bristol I spent thirty five years caving and potholing, which really gets you in touch with the natural landscape in environments that few experience, thus connecting me further to the world we live in.
It is very easy to be inspired by the natural world and explore all that it has to offer.
Living as I do in Devon, I am greatly drawn to painting our coastline with all its geological diversity and of course Dartmoor, which Has much to offer if one is prepared to take the time to look, look some more, then look again.
As a Tai chi instructor and practitioner for nearly thirty years I have learned to be still and at one with my surroundings, painting has become a greater expression of my Tai chi and as I have developed and moved on with my art, I feel a greater harmony with my surroundings.
I paint on board and canvas, exclusively in oils and produce only original work from my observations. I don’t produce prints or cards, preferring to offer exclusivity of owning original paintings.
My palette has expanded by the introduction of some Italian pigments and handmade British pigments, this has brought a new vibrancy to my work and shown me that there is still much to discover, even after over forty five years of painting.
I have been lucky enough to sell my work to people as far apart as Tasmania and Canada and many countries in between.