SIMON PEMBERTON – Biography
Simon was born on the Wirral, England. He studied at The London College of Printing followed by Central Saint Martin’s. He works from a shared studio in East London. Simon has been represented by Heart since 2001, Darrel contacted Simon after seeing his work for Adobe.
Simon’s background is collage, and this used to be sculptural in scale. His work may now appear to be painting, but more accurately it can still be described as collage. Simon’s work is created by collaging brush marks. Multiple layers
exist in Photoshop of an assemblage of mark. Some maybe from a pre-existing library Simon keeps or some maybe created specifically for an artwork and then added to the library. Some marks are small and then enlarged, some marks are large and only small sections are taken. They are very physical creations, which communicate emotions of isolation, drama, fear, joy and wonder.
Simon’s commission for The Folio Society on Shackelton’s Journey required a series of artworks to illustrate an account of an unbelievably treacherous voyage and provided an opportunity to create artworks that in someway take you there, to envisage the enormous waves and the fragile boat. The tensions as well as the beauty of nature is something that is often explored in Simon’s work, huge skies and vast landscapes, a figure or figurative element on the horizon line creating a focal point and sense of scale. Simon spends a lot of time sketching and creating artworks in Epping Forest. It’s a place that he loves, finds a beautiful haven and feeds into his commercial work.
Qualities of light, texture and colour are all of major significance in Simon’s artwork. In a commission for Taylors of Harrogate he was asked to create twenty artworks to rebrand and package their coffees. Each artwork was to represent the place or origin of the coffee beans, which in turn expresses the flavour and intensity of the roast. The artworks range from explosive representing ‘Hot Lava Java’ from Brazil to the serene and mellow flavour of Panama La Esmerelda.
Simon has worked on corporate projects for the V&A annual report, Battersea Power Station’s marketing brochures and The Royal Mail Year Book. In other commissions he has covered topics such as fracking, displaced refugees, and the likelihood of new life forms being discovered on distant moons. These are some examples for the kind of brief Simon gets picked up for, all very much to do with human’s relationship with nature and the world we live in. Simon has also worked on advertising campaigns for productions of Richard III and Les Misérables, on Broadway. These have involved more figurative drawing, but inline with the rest of his portfolio ever dramatic and energetic as backdrops to two very different stories of human endeavour.
Select Client List
Adobe, Battersea Power Station, BBC Music, Courrier Japan, The Economist, Faber & Faber, The Financial Times, The Folio Society, Fuji, Grizedale Mountain Bikes, The Guardian, Harper’s Magazine, The Independent, Macmillan, Nestlé, The New Yorker, The New York Times, New Scientist, Nottingham Playhouse, Penguin Books, Playboy Magazine, Pushkin Press, The Royal Mail,
Taylors of Harrogate, The Times, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Woodland Trust