Simeon Stafford A Joyful Day

SIMEON STAFFORD

26 November - 14 December 2011

You are invited to the Private View at Mid-Day on Saturday 26th November (Wine)

A JOYFUL DAY

McALLISTER THOMAS FINE ART

117 High Street - Godalming Surrey - GU7 1AQ

01483 860591

www.mcallisterthomasfineart.co.uk

The full exhibition can be viewed on our website

Front Cover : Sunday Afternoon, Mousehole 20 x 30 inches

Inside Cover : Cornish Harbour 36 x 48 inches

Simeon Stafford - A Joyful Day

This November brings the vibrant naive art of Simeon Stafford back to the gallery walls of McAllister Thomas Fine Art. Simeon Stafford was born in Dukinfield (a small northern town bordering the Pennines) in 1956. He was introduced to L.S.Lowry at the age of 14 after winning the Robert Owen School Award for Art and the Manchester News Portrait Award, Lowry became a friend of the family and encouraged Simeon to study art. In 1972 and 1973, he studied at Hyde College and in 1974, became a professional artist and exhibited his work in mixed exhibitions throughout the north of England and London. Like so many artists Simeon is also an accomplished musician and composer being a member of the North West Composers Association and the British Academy of Composers In 1996 Simeon moved to the Penwith Peninsula,Cornwall and settled down close to St.Ives where his influences included the artists Terry Frost and Patrick Heron, whose colour and light had a great impact on him. Not concerned with angst and soul searching, in his own words "there is enough of that in the world of news today", Stafford's world of pictorial imagery is a world of humour and fun, an essence of spontaneity that is joyfully translated to the viewer. Simeon Stafford is an observer of life, his paintings are crammed full of incidents and accidents, bustling scenes of human interaction, a happy dialogue of work and play If his paintings are studied you will discover figures re-occurring, skipping Ruby with pig-tails, Dot, the little girl cart-wheeling across the canvas (his aunt as a child) and sometimes a man with red stripy trousers marching through a crowd, leading a small boy by the hand, (the artist with his son). There is a nostalgic echo to these paintings that each and every one of us can identify with, an essence that captures the excitement and expectation, of any old day seen through a child's eyes. These paintings nourish the child within us all. Widely regarded as one of the country's leading living naive artists, Stafford exhibited at the Royal Academy in 2001 and his work can also be found in numerous private collections worldwide, including that of her Majesty the Queen. More images from the exhibition can be viewed on our website and paintings can be purchased upon receipt of this catalogue.

Winter Holiday 30 x 40 inches

Winter Bonfire 12 x 48 inches

Carol Singers In The Park 12 x 48 inches

Play Street 16 x 20 inches

Abbey Slip, Penzance 20 x 30 inches

Market Street 30 x 40 inches

A Good Day For Sailing 36 x 48 inches

Over The Bridge 20 x 30 inches

117 HIGH STREET - GODALMING - SURREY - GU7 1AQ

TELEPHONE 01483 860 591

www.mcallisterthomasfineart.co.uk

The Bandstand 24 x 48 inches