Western Morning News (Saturday)
Art with a real sense of joie de vivre
FRANK RUHRMUND sees exhibits by Simeon Stafford at Whitewater Gallery
To launch this year’s featured artist series of solo exhibitions, the Whitewater Gallery at Polzeath has chosen the prodigious and immensely popular Simeon Stafford. One who has been busy with his brush for something like half a century, I still remember the first exhibition of his work that I saw several ago and, in particular, of the way he captured and conveyed such a strong sense of the excitement engendered in youngsters when taken to the beach, of their rush to test the water, of their happiness at being on holiday. Possibly the most remarkable aspect of his current show is the fact that this happy sense still prevails in his compositions, that his colours are as cheerful and his characters as cheeky as ever, and that their overall sense of joie de vivre remains highly infectious. Whether looking at the North Cornwall beaches of Polzeath and Daymer Bay, or the harbours of Padstow and Port Isaac, his canvases overflow with a feel-good factor, and sense of community, not to mention the premise that life is for living.
Born in the small northern town of Dukinfield, not far from Manchester, it is likely that his approach to both is art and to life has something to do with him having the good fortune when a teenager to meet and to be encouraged to paint by none other than one of Manchester’s most celebrated sons LS
Lowry, who happened to be a customer at a greengrocery in
Hyde run by his parents Jean and Fred Stafford. Although he attended Hyde College for a while, Simeon Stafford is largely self-taught, and while there are parallels between his paintings and those of his sometime mentor, they remain firmly his own work. Indeed, it is fair to say that the stick-like figures that people his paintings are jolly and obviously enjoy life more than any of those found in Lowry’s work.
There might be an element of escapism in his paintings but at the same time there is not a trace of anything remotely resembling a message in them. He ignores the problems that beset us, from Covid to those of a domestic, emotional, financial or political nature, and instead invites his viewer to join him, with help from his irresistible, bronze Yo Yo Girl, to join him in enjoying what might be called his “eat, drink and be merry” pictures. Since coming to Cornwall in the mid-1960’s, he has exhibited widely from the county to the capital, and his work is now to be found in any number of collections, including that of Her Majesty the Queen’s to former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s.
Well worth seeing, guaranteed to raise a smile on the face of resident and visitor alike, whatever the weather, and as satisfying as they are spontaneous, admission is free, and Simeon Stafford’s highly individual and imaginative works can be seen in the Whitewater Gallery, The Parade, Polzeath, until April 30.