Simon Lewis Birch

Durgan
Mixed Media - Acrylic and Charcoal on board 87 cm x 62 cm
Situated on the Helford estuary near Falmouth, Durgan is a charming hamlet. The lane leading down to it is framed by majestic trees. The painting evokes the sereness of this location and is created from memory. Rendered with a blend of autumnal colours and soft brushwork, Durgan reflects my initial experience of this picturesque spot. The work recalls an early September when I, accompanied by a friend, walked from Durgan along the coast path to the Ferry Boat Inn at Helford Passage. The scene depicted is not just a physical space but a deeply personal beginning, marking the beginning of a new chapter for me living in Cornwall.

SUMMER AFTERNOON
Acrylic on paper. 19 cm x 14 cm
This small abstract painting is a depiction of a lazy summer afternoon. I wanted to capture through mark and colour the vividness of a mid-afternoon on St Agnes, Isles of Scilly. In this painting there are references to summer clouds and blue skies, the scent of the sea on a gentle breeze, high hedges of pittosporum and tamarisk, the oranges and yellow of gazania growing over a granite pebble wall and the turbulence of a song thrush flying past with a striped snail in its beak. I have used a combination of acrylic paint, mixes of cerulean blue, burnt ochre, primary red and yellow and phthalo turquoise, as well as titanium white and mars black. The paint has been applied using different sized brushes. I have also applied deep intense lines of charcoal.

SHORE
mixed media on board 50cm x 50cm
SHORE is a work that is simultaneously a bird’s eye view of a coastline and also a view into a rock pool. The patterning on a slate pebble and lines of rolling waves become one and the same, the mist of a breaking wave is also a cloud. I have used a combination of acrylic paint, mixes of cerulean blue, burnt ochre and primary yellow, as well as titanium white and mars black. The paint has been applied using different sized brushes and a silicon wedge. I have also applied charcoal and soft pastels to add a further texture and intensity.

NIGHT DRIVE ALONG THE COAST
mixed media on board 50cm x 50cm
Have you ever driven along a cliff road at night and seen the moon glinting off the sea? This painting is inspired by doing just that. The location I had in mind was on Coast Road heading southwest, leaving Towan Cross towards Porthtowan, Cornwall. In this painting I try to capture the movement of the car, the pools of light from car headlights, a sense of time passing, the silvery blue of the moonlit sea and a view of the coastline fading into the distance. It is a painting that takes abstracted and multiple perspectives of this location. I have used a combination of acrylic paint, mixes of cerulean blue, burnt ochre, phthalo turquoise and magenta, as well as titanium white and mars black. The paint has been applied using different sized brushes and a silicon wedge. I have also applied deep intense patches of charcoal, as well as soft pastel lines and smudges to add a different texture and intensity. This painting is built up of layers which have been applied and remove.

DRAWN TO THE SURFACE
Acrylic mixed media on board in solid oak frame 84 cm x 59 cm
‘…The menace and caress of wave that breaks on water, The distant rote in the granite teeth, And the wailing warning from approaching headland Are the all sea voices, and heaving groaner Rounded homewards, and the seagull: And under the oppression of the silent fog The tolling bell…’ Dry Salvages T.S.Eliot I am huge fan of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Four Quartets has inspired my artwork (choreography, film making and painting) over the years, and this piece is no exception. This painting is also inspired by the moments when I have stood on the edge of the ocean or indeed been on it in rough weather. These experiences being for me metaphors for life; we ride the surface of the waves of our lives and from time to time what we hold deep inside – memories and emotions, appear on the surface, drawn up from the depths of our being like objects drawn up from the seabed. I have used a combination of acrylic paint, mixes of cerulean blue, burnt ochre, burnt sienna, phthalo turquoise and magenta, as well as titanium white and mars black. The paint has been applied using different sized brushes and a silicon wedge. I have also applied deep intense patches of charcoal, as well as soft pastel lines and smudges to add different textures and intensity. This painting is built up of layers which have been applied and removed.