About the paintings of Simon Blackwood
The property of beauty is to shine.
Its' light extends infinitely both inwardly and outwardly.
It is both overwhelming and inspiring and whatever it
illuminates is consumed as it is also created by it.
In short, beauty is not partial.
I have chosen to follow a spiritual orientation toward all things I do.
The road and the destination in this journey is the love of beauty.
(A statement inspired by the writings of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi and Jelaleddin Rumi.)



Painting is a metamorphosis from base elements into an image of another reality beyond those original elements. It can allude to sublime ideals through subject matter or by the means of the juxtaposition of colour, shape and form. At best it reveals the highest aspirations of man striving to praise the gift of intelligence, love of beauty and life itself.

Paintings can recall or remind us by illusory means; they may also point towards something beyond the material object of the ‘tableau’ hanging on a wall.
The paintings represented here also attempt, without abstraction, to point beyond the subject matter, alluding to the hidden, in the world of man, that gives rise to his creativity. Potentially, they are not bound by fashion or creed but reach out for the intangible, illusive spark we find in love, the most positive response available to us.
With each failure in this journey there is an element of success that goads the artist to continue.

In the early 1980’s Mr Grenville Collins, who was at that time Simon’s agent, coined the epithet “Romantic Luminism” to describe his art.