Simon Laurie RSW RGI

29th June - 15th July

A life long passion for the work of Ben Nicholson led to early experiments in semi sculptural abstract works: pure white, three dimensional constructions of sea-themed, found objects. As his work developed during the late 1990s Simon returned to painting and began to employ colour increasingly in his work, finally arriving at the intensely hot palette that now lights up his landscapes.

As he enters his fourth decade Simon's painting is developing again; through his distinctive arrangements of everyday images on abstracted forms he continues to play compositionally with our accepted perceptions of space and perspective. Recently Simon has returned to his flirtation with the third dimension, cleverly applying elements of collage to blur the lines between the painted and the real.

The sea has been a consistent theme in Simon's work whether in the driftwood of his early constructions or his idiosyncratic harbour scenes patterned with Wallis-like fishing boats. In these new coastal views Simon introduces an uncharacteristic sense of narrative, each fishing village seemingly watched over by a sentinel, a monolithic figure reminiscent of a Gormley sculpture. These apparently benign guardians lend his landscapes a timeless quality and suggest an increasingly spiritual direction in his painting.

Simon Laurie's paintings are the perfect fusion of the purity and formalism of the St Ives's school and the rich colourist tradition of the Scots.

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