Artist: Gregg Simpson
Medium: Oil, Pastel
Website:  www.greggsimpson.com

My work involves an evolution through periods of surrealism and abstraction. I began in the 60s as a hard-edge Pop-influenced painter, who also did collages, drawings and multi-media. My work developed into a sort of neo-surrealism which eventually worked its way to a form of lyric abstraction. I often try to invoke a sense of place,
whether the west coast of British Columbia, or more recently, the Mediterranean landscapes of Provence and Tuscany. I trace the evolution of my work back to the paleolithic artists who also used a mark making process to stimulate a magical or visionary state of mind.

Shown widely across Europe, Simpson is part of the Surrealist and Lyric Abstraction movements. Referencing organic shapes, his oil and acrylic paintings on canvas and paper expertly utilize the single gesture to represent an entire form, delicately balancing soft effusions of colour against the frenetic energy of the mark. The resulting image possesses a surge of movement that suggests the unearthly, despite the hues which tie it inextricably to the terrestrial. Simpson’s paintings flux between the solid, rooted world and the ethereal. [Nicole Donnelly, Independent Curator, Mexico City]