bedroom-art.co.uk | Simon Whittle
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Simon Whittle

I am a figurative painter specialising in the female figure. I love the play of light over skin and fabric, the forms and curves of the model. My paintings celebrate the beauty I see in my models and have a sensuality and eroticism that comes from them and the way they pose. It is a collaborative process as we work together to get a look we are both happy with.

 

I work with models I know well, many have posed regularly for my life classes in London. They often become close friends and co-creators of the poses and atmosphere in the paintings.

 

I work from photographs. This is partly because it takes me a relatively long time to finish a painting and this allows me to cut down on the modelling fees, but also as they sometimes live abroad and I do not have access to them for long enough to get the paintings done. I actually love painting and drawing from ‘life’.

 

I have always painted. I started working seriously in my gap year when I was living in Mexico City in 1974-5. I did my first life drawings in the life class at the Academia San Carlos, and was then tutored by the animator Gerald / Gerry Ray (Bullwinkle, Rocky and several other great ‘cartoons’) and the painter Toby Joysmith who introduced me to acrylics and encouraged me to paint from the heart.

 

I draw from life every week. I am President of the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society at the Mall Galleries. We are London’s largest life drawing group with around 100 artists drawing from 4 models on a weekly basis. I book the models and organise the classes. See https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/events/hesketh-hubbard for more details.

 

Where would you put my paintings? In your bedroom….

Simon Whittle
Simon Whittle at work

My paintings