Northern Fair: Contemporary Naive School Oil Painting, 2004

Harking back to his roots in this picture Simeon Stafford has captured, in a whirling scene of colourful chaos all the elements that made travelling fairs such magical places for adults and children alike. The fishing boats in the background however, show that there’s no escape from the daily reality despite it’s suspension for the duration of the fairs’ stay in town. A truly atmospheric work from this artist with a great depth of paint. Artist Biography: Simeon Stafford was born in Dukinfield (a small northern town bordering the Pennines) in 1959. As a young artist, his landscapes were similar to the gritty northern landscapes of L.S.Lowry and other northern English artists. At the age of 14, Stafford met L.S Lowry who encouraged him to paint. Simeon moved to Cornwall in 1996, where he met the artists Terry Frost & Patrick Heron. Thus his northern roots fused with the influence of colour & light from Frost & Heron and the magnetism of West Penwith to create an expressionism within his work which is both powerful and alluring. Not concerned with angst and soul searching, in his own words "there is enough of that in the world of news today", Stafford's work is deeply idiosyncratic and reflects a world full of incident and accident, with splashes of vibrant colour and amusing compositions. He charmingly combines reality and imagination, with many of his paintings featuring characters from his family, including Auntie Dot, the little girl who is constantly doing a handstand, Trixie, the family Jack Russell, who lived until she was 28 and is now stuffed and a resident of Simeon?s bedroom and the black seaside donkey. Widely regarded as one of the country's leading living artists, Stafford exhibited at the Royal Academy in 2001 and in 2003 he became a member of The Birmingham Society of Artists. His work can be found in numerous private collections, including those of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and former Prime Minister Tony Blair