Neil Simone - How Long Does it Take? 

This recently published anthology on the life and career of Neil Simone, features over 120 colour reproductions and is packed with interesting anecdotes and facts. From his early days as a struggling artist in London, follow the journey and see the progression in his work as his ideas and concept evolve.

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Below are a few short excerts from the book, together with some more pictures of Neil Simone's work...

Inevitably the initial storm of interest and sales faded to calmness bordering on apathy by the buying public. With an impetuous bravado and an empty wallet, I decided to try the audacious technique of selling door to door. The first of these ventures saw me out and about for about one hour before I returned home clutching £40 having sold three paintings. Throughout the winter of 1971/2, I would load up my mini van, then, with the "hunter gatherer" mentality, I would forage in search of potential customers for my paintings.

Wearing a look of pathetic desperation, I would knock on the door and ask if anyone there would be interested in viewing some original paintings. I rarely returned home without achieving at least one sale. Mostly, people were intrigued and those who were not, were at least polite in their indifference. These forays saw me through the winter months until, in the spring of 1971, when I exhibited my paintings at another council backed exhibition at the Lounge Hall, Royal Baths, Harrogate. This was again to prove instrumental in my career.

I was not on a mission to achieve fame and fortune, my ambition was to become the best painter I could. Writing this, thirty years on, it is still my ambition. I had dallied with impressionism and semi-abstract realism, but now my work was bordering on photo-realism. Without a powerful subject matter, this work can lack imagination and passion, only receiving admiration for its technical excellence. I then believed, the more difficult a painting was to do, the better it must be. Remember, I had no knowledge of art history, no training and no mentor. All I knew was that I admired the proficient technical ability I saw in other peoples' paintings and I wanted that for my own work. I continued to follow a path to who knew where?

Preoccupied with developing as a painter I had somehow misplaced my previous interest in the subject matter I was painting. In the beginning it had been my imagination that had fired my enthusiasm. Perhaps it was time to inject some visionary element into my work again. After days of introspection, with the words of the Victoria Gallery director resonating in my head, I tried to see what direction to take in order to interpret my preoccupation with the process of painting. I was experienced in painting a diverse range of subjects and now needed to capitalise on this knowledge. Asking myself the question, what would I like to see on my own walls? The answer was paintings with an element of realism that invite conjecture. A personal vision, ambiguous enough to invite interpretation, an alternative view of reality.

Perhaps it was the open aspects and distant views that inspired me, but I began to develop an interest in spacial awareness, exploring multiple images in relation to one another in a single scene. Interiors began to blend into the landscape beyond. Transparent or open doors invited us to enter uncharted territory. As my work led beyond the boundaries of reality, it was apparent that one idea led to another and, able to convey these ideas in paint, I found it captivating.