SIMON HART completed an MA in Printed Textiles at the Royal College of Art in London in 1993.  It was while he was there that he developed the Collage style that he is has become so well known for and makes his work so instantly recognisable.  Starting by creating hand painted coloured grounds on paper with acrylics, he then uses a variety of other techniques including monoprint and block printing to produce extra textures and elements.  The main background is then painted onto board using various mark making tools such as rollers, scrapers and sprays . The collage process then begins , cutting out strong shapes in the composition, slowly building up the layers,  sticking them down as the piece progresses,  adding more of the finer details and finally finishing the piece with oil pastels to create highlights and sandpaper to soften some of the edges.

 

After graduating from the Royal College of Art he focused on contemporary landscape pieces and quickly gained success as an artist exhibiting in many galleries throughout the UK, but it was his seascapes of Cornish and Devon harbours that became particularly popular with collectors. Many of his images have been produced as prints, greetings cards and limited editions by leading art publishers and retailers worldwide.  Simon has certainly followed a variety of creative journeys during his career,  always looking for new subject matter to challenge him and constantly crossing over between different disciplines of art and design.  After moving to Dartmouth in 2000 he set up and established a Contemporary Art Gallery with his wife promoting the work of leading South West artists but sold the business after 8 years choosing instead to focus on illustration and follow a more commercial path.  Forming a publishing company producing ranges of stationery, textiles and ceramics with wildlife , vintage and children’s images this then evolved into an online personalised gift business with bold, graphical designs being applied to an extensive range of interior items.

 

It was in early 2024 that he finally decided it was the right time to concentrate on creating original art once again and return to where it had all began . Revisiting some of his favourite harbours he fell in love all over again. Exploring Cornwall and Devon with his sketchbook and camera , recording new compositions and gathering fresh inspiration he embarked on a new collection of pieces capturing the magic of the wonderful fishing villages and stunning coastline that had drawn him there in the first place.  The new work has evolved with subtle colour palettes,  larger areas of texture and more attention to architectural detail and you can clearly see the artist is really enjoying being back where he belongs.