Simon Williams artist

Simon Williams' (b1965) paintings feed upon the plethora of visual material accessible in the digital age he draws inspiration from many sources most notably child hood comic books, film posters, graffiti and advertising and packaging.

“Painting for me is a preoccupation with abstracted marks and chance alignments; I am constantly exploring new ways to use paint to create images intended to challenge the visual perception of the viewer, where sharp edges meet overlaying screened folds of paint, applied in thin layers intended to create vivid spatial surfaces. I deliberately choose to make and modify my own pallet knives and other painting tools to push paint in an effort to contest the conventions and recognisable signature of the paint brush. The working process is a balance between responding intuitively to the mark making and stumbling upon unpredicted visual reference".

Simon is a remarkably inventive artist. His approach to exploring painting processes and materials echoes the time he has spent problem solving and creating from the ground up as a leading animatronic designer making moving characters for TV and film as a major design contributor for Spitting Image through to Harry Potter and Star Wars films among others.

Simon had one of his paintings shortlisted for the highly respected John Moores Painting Prize in 2016.

Simon teaches our Exploring Abstraction course.