Simon Farnell | ArtGallery.co.uk

Having come from a family background of music and art I have always enjoyed the creative opportunities inspired by working with different media, principally charcoal, pastel and Conte crayon for drawing, with paintings in acrylic and oil working with palette knife and brushes. Living in West Cornwall offers the chance to attend life drawing classes at St Ives, Truro and Redruth and the occasional 'masterclass' which are all extremely useful with gifted tutors and mentors on hand. I have exhibited with local art societies and groups including the St Agnes Society of Artists and the St Ives School of art. I am also a member of the St Ives Art Club, Cornwall. My original work involved constructing art pieces using driftwood, rope and other flotsam which I was able to collect whilst living next to the beach at Chapel Porth at the time. I evolved a rustic style of furniture which proved very popular and successfully exhibited and sold these using the internet. However, moving away from the coast made it more difficult to sustain and the need to collect a vast amount of stock to ensure the right piece is at hand, washed and dried, and as many more folk were also discovering the unique beauty of working with driftwood, I turned my attention back to drawing and painting. Studio time is mainly restricted to evenings and weekends so my indoor work is often taken from photographs, sometimes manipulated to create deep shadows or monochrome images. I have a particular passion for figure drawing. I do enjoy taking the sketchbook ‘plein-air’ to absorb and try to capture the atmosphere of a moment, at Glastonbury festival especially (when I’m lucky enough to get tickets), and also when travelling on the Cross Channel ferry to Brittany and spending time there. It is fortunate and inspiring to be in a region that offers coastal, moorland, woodland, and river scenery all within a few miles of home whether it be Redruth or Carhaix.

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