Simon Whitfield

Simon says that his life as an artist is one of constant adventure and renewal. It is an ongoing process of fresh discovery. His painting subjects are inspired by things which are for him iconic Lakeland: crags, rock, light and wildness; the wilderness of the high fell which quietly awaits discovery in that secret, barren, Icelandic world above the tree line.

These are the things which first made Simon a painter. Solid, timeless and immovable motifs that as an artist he feels compelled to return to again and again; often he is rebuffed by the elements, but he always returns to views waiting to be discovered afresh in a different season or mood.

Freshness is always his aim as an artist. Guided by the walks of Alfred Wainwright and W. A. Poucher, he aims to seek out new vistas and create totally original paintings, something people might think difficult in such a small, much painted area as the Lake District. However, he believes even a compact area, a mere 30 miles in length and breadth, probably has enough secrets and fresh discoveries for a lifetime.

What inspires him most is the health giving, peace and solitude of Lakeland; a ringing primaeval silence broken only by the iron hard hollow clank of boot on scree and boulder, skylarks wheeling and the harsh metallic croak of ravens; exciting light effects (ideally in the magic hours of dawn and twilight) and particularly the rock which is the very foundation of both his paintings and the Lake District itself.

This is what makes him a painter of mountains – the skeletal aspects of the fells, such as Swirral and Striding Edge, with their coiled energy and jagged vertebrae of rock are what excite him most as a painter. They underpin and inspire his painting, from intimate rock studies to paintings of the towering Pillar Rock or Napes Needle.

He says it is their honest, truthful sparseness, immovability and uncompromising honesty which makes them heroic and sublime, and therefore worthy subjects for the mountain painter.