Simon, why do you paint the sea?

"One of the epic, treasured, life changing periods of my life was when I worked on the sea - the inshore, as opposed to the 'high' seas. Working my little fishing boat, rising and falling on massive swells; the flat calm in thick fog, the sound of the lapping water on the beach coming at me from every direction; pushing the boat through crashing breakers, leaping over the stern and grabbing the oars between waves...

The incredible sense of 'oneness' with the elements. Watching how water moves. Seeing how wind interacts with tide; identifying submerged sandbars by reading the surface... I have so much knowledge now. I KNOW what waves will do, and why they do it. I like to paint the frozen moment in the progression of a wave, knowing what it is going to do next, and it's influence on reflection and refraction of light.

I am drawn, like a moth to a flame, to salt water. Some people are moved by the 'deep'. I am inexorably captivated by the relationship of the sea and the land, and how water and current behave when land becomes a factor. Mix these variables with the ever changing light of time and weather, and you have - me. I feel I am a man of sand, salt, and water, molded by wind and wave, baked by the sun, cleansed by rain. 

For me it is an intensely humbling experience to be such a small speck in the vastness, like a grain of sand.  Inexorably entwined with my sense of humility is gratitude, and a wonderful connection with God."