Simeon Stafford

Simeon Stafford hails from Manchester and has a wonderful way of applying paint to canvas creating an interesting, sensuous and textured surface.  He is also an accomplished musician and composer being a member of the North West Composers Association and the British Academy of Composers.

Not only does Simeon paint but he also produces sculptures too.  He is a larger than life character and most of his paintings are influenced by his subconscious and his childhood in the North of England.  His northern scenes often show a much deeper and more considered approach.

Many of his paintings feature characters from his family including Aunt Dot, she is the little girl who is constantly doing a handstand.  His mother told him the story of how she was always in the backyard doing handstands then one day when she was 7 tragically landed on her head and killed herself.  Simeon asked his sister to check out the family graves and sure enough there she was.  Another character was the family Jack Russell Trixie who lived until she was 28 and is now stuffed and a resident of Simeon’s bedroom.  Other characters include the family car a yellow Robin Reliant, the Victorian double fronted house, his favourite toy a Red Bus, a seven year old girl with pigtails who lives on St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and the cavorting donkeys he keeps on his farm.  A man in red and white striped trousers often hurries across the picture dragging a small boy  - Simeon himself with his son, dashing through life at a tremendous pace.  At times umbrellas and coloured rain also appears.

Simeon’s work now has much greater expression, exuberance and freedom since moving to Cornwall.  The light has obviously influenced his colour palette too.  He combines reality and imagination and often brings back a smile because it will reminisce you of a family outing someway back in your own childhood.

Simeon exhibited his work at the Royal Academy in 2001 and his work has found its way into the private collections of Her Majesty The Queen and Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister.