Pam Simpson

I studied at the Byam Shaw and Central Schools of Art in the 1950s, at King Alfred’s College, Winchester (Dip. Ed) in the 1970s and at Saint Martins School of Art, London Institute (BA Hons Fine Art and Critical Studies) in the 1980s.

I have teaching experience in numerous schools, at Berkshire College of Art and Design, in adult education centres and at many summer schools. I have also been a book illustrator, an A-Level examiner and have been involved in organising several community art projects.

My work has been exhibited in London and elsewhere in the UK; in 1998 I was a Spink Prize finalist at the Spink Gallery in Old Bond Street, London and have twice been a Marie Dyson award winner with the Reading Guild of Artists. My work is in both private and public collections; Weatherspoon have commissioned several paintings for the ‘Moon and Spoon’, Slough and the ‘Back of Beyond’, Reading.

The subject matter of my paintings reflects my love of landscape and of still life. Most of the landscapes are derived from fleeting scenes glimpsed on journeys - from memories and visual notes. I am interested in atmosphere and pictorial space, and try to represent these through colour and expressionistic marks, usually working in oil, acrylic or pastel.

The still lifes come from direct observation - I am fascinated by form, colour, pattern and light and shade. Fruit, with its sensuous and light-reflecting qualities, has always played a major part in these paintings, for which I usually use watercolour or oil.

Despite the difference between the broadness of landscape space and the closeness of still-life space, I enjoy the interplay between them - landscape can, sometimes, resemble still life and still life resemble landscape. And as I am moving to a home near the sea, no doubt seascape space will enter into my work.

The paintings, regardless of subject matter but dependent on medium, vary in size from 6 feet by 5 feet to 7 inches by 5 inches.