Three TECHNIQUES one ARTIST

tea & ochre (wet)

                                                          TEA                                                                         TOOLS                                                            RED & YELLOW OCHRE

Working in the highly unusual medium of mixing both TEA and ground OCHRE pigment into a workable paste, Simon lays down a light wash of tea, then gradually builds in the detail by adding layer upon layer of the ochre paste. This technique enables him to achieve a warm effect, reflecting the light, heat and dust of an African landscape. Ochre is an earth pigment found in many parts of Africa and is often used by tribes for facial and body paint.  It has, for many thousands of years, been used in rock art and cave paintings.

chalk, charcoal & ochre (dry)

                                      CHALK                                                                        CHARCOAL                                                                                     RED & YELLOW OCHRE

By using a different style, he also sketches some of his more atmospheric images using chalk, charcoal and ochre pigment on a background of black pastel paper. This style has enabled him to capture the subtle light and mood in his amazing images. For millennia, man has used both CHALK, CHARCOAL and OCHRE in their art, using both cave walls and open rock faces as their canvas.

ROCK ART

        CAVE PAINTINGS

coloured pastels (dry)

He has developed this more recent style of sketching by using COLOURED PASTELS which has helped expand his repertoire of being able to create blurred backgrounds that produces an image with differing focal points. His wife Kate now helps him with his partial colour blindness by creating small colour swatches to aide him with the various tones in each of his sketches.