England to Cyprus and back again.
This site shows a selection of sculpture, painting and drawings made in England and
Cyprus as artist-in-residence/tutor at the Cyprus College of Art and in Folkestone in Kent. In late June 2013 I moved across the county to Whitstable on the north Kent coast, In August 2017 I move to Chartham, a village in the river Stour valley near Canterbury.
When I arrived in Cyprus, late September 2007, I was principally a stone carver and a maker of measured life drawing that informed my carving. Initially I was excited by the great variety of freely available stone in Cyprus, limestones and grey/green serpentanite.
I no longer work with stone but began using found objects, timber, twigs, kebab sticks, plaster and colour.
My drawing has also changed from painstakingly detailed work as an illustrator through to measured observational drawing from the life model to the more instinctive oil pastels. I use them as stubs, almost my fingers...it feels somewhat like carving in colour. During 2012 I returned to working with graphite and colour pencil, sometimes combined with oil pastel and more recently I have been painting with watercolour. More often than not, the drawings are derived from mythology, ancient archaeology and dreams.
During 2011 I progressed with the use of scrap wood, lolly sticks, kebab sticks and glue gun to make a series of birds, adding plaster to the mix and colour/stains. It feels as if I have gone full circle with this new work. As a child I began drawing seriously when I developed an interest in birds and the wildlife all around me, I would study them and draw them as realistically as I could. These new birds are different, they attempt to capture the spirit of the species without sentiment, they are rough and sculptural not detailed or illustrative.
In August 2013 I returned to Cyprus for a month taking with me a visual note book and a small watercolour box, a couple of flat watercolour brushes and some colour pencils. Since then watercolour has dominated my work. The style has become increasingly loose, wet and fast. Memories of time and place and interpretations of old master paintings. In 2017 I began working with oil sticks on paper, mostly small works that increasingly move towards abstraction.
To purchase work or for more information please email me on jsimsartist@outlook.com
Three Graces. Grey Serpentanite and Self Sacrifice. Found timber, paint and Praying Mantis.
The Judgement of Solomon (after Poussin)
Watercolour on Paper. 19 x 28 cm