Greg Simkins

Artist's Statement

After a family trip to Hawaii, I was struck by the beauty everywhere – from the flowers and the trees, sunsets and clouds – to the incredible colors of the fish and wildlife in the reefs just out front and buried in the ocean. I swam where fish and sea turtles were everywhere and I couldn't feel more blessed to be interacting with such beautiful creatures. Watching a documentary shortly afterward on Yellowstone National Park, I was amazed at the number of different elements in nature that are so familiar to me but will never be realized by each other. We will never see snow covered coral reefs inhabited by butterflies alongside moray eels. Deer will not gallop beside killer whales and birds will never share their nests with a family of jellyfish. Of course, it is now my job to make some introductions and see where they go. These are some of the symbiotic relationships that are going on peripherally in the world I paint. They are what make up the eco-structure of “The Outside.” My characters who live there find nothing foreign or strange about their surroundings and introduce them to newcomers as one would to their backyard garden. “The Outside” just…is.

At the end of the day, when the paint is hardening on the palette and the final coat of varnish has been applied, I sit back and lace my fingers behind my neck and escape into what was once trapped in my head. It is no longer the blank canvas that I cut my fingers assembling. A mass of wood, staples, linen and gesso the acrylic brush strokes are barely noticeable. The long journey from blank slate to finished piece is now finished and I enjoy a glimpse of what is going on inside “The Outside.”

– GS

Artist's Bio

Greg Simkins has been featured at the following galleries: Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, California, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, New York, and Yves Laroche, Galerie d’Art, Montreal, Quebec.

Selected Recent Exhibitions: 2010 – Inside the Outside, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, New York. 2009 – The Pearl Thief, Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight, Los Angeles, California; Seeing Things, Fifty24Sf, San Francisco, California; Overdose, Copro / Nason Gallery, Santa Monica, California; The Art of Sketch Theatre, Gnomon Gallery, Hollywood, California. 2008 – It Wanders (West), Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight, Los Angeles, California; It Wanders (East), Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, New York; The Well, MModern Gallery, Palm Springs, California; Locked and Loaded, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, New York; Stan Lee Tribute, Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight, Los Angeles, California.