A short video on Artist Simon Claridge. Filmed by Marc Lilius on location in South Molton Street, London as part of Simon’s national gallery tour showcasing the art of silkscreening, and in his Studio in Reading while he developed the original proofs of his ‘penny black’ edition.
Statment
I have been keen to work with silkscreening for a while, it felt like a natural step for me and has inspired me to create this new collection.
Silkscreening is relatively easy to learn but can take a lifetime to master as every stage of the process can be altered to create different effects and results. The key element though, is that art created in this way is very much hand-made. I am proud to have developed a collection of work using this age- old technique and I consider my original works made in this way to be original paintings; I simply use a different kind of brush!
The Penny Black image is my interpretation of a beautiful piece of design that represents the beginning of modern communication – a stamp.
It is iconic in both its symbolism and aesthetics. Nowadays, the whole world is at our fingertips with email, Facebook and Twitter and I wanted to celebrate the power of the written hand. Nothing beats the feeling of receiving a handwritten letter or a beautiful card in the post. Perhaps it’s something that we should all make the time to do more often.
Monroe Lisa was a joy to create. I hand painted the original ‘mash up’ in a previous collection of work and knew immediately that it would make a fantastic silkscreen piece. I can think of no more iconic portraits than those of the Mona Lisa and Marilyn Monroe so I decided to combine the two to create this powerful image. The piece has such great humour and Marilyn throwing back her head with laughter is there to acknowledge that.
I have produced both of the images in several colour ways, which I chose specifically to emulate the Pop Art movement. The ability to produce multicolour ways is a great strength of the silkscreening technique and is one of the many aspects of the medium I find so exciting. Both pieces have been created in celebration of their respective subject matters.
Further information on the limited editions can be found here