About the Artist
Robert J. Simone is an artist with the ability to find extraordinary beauty in ordinary places. His enthusiasm for nature and passion for painting are infectious. He has been described as a highly-skilled representational painter who possesses an innate sense of color and composition. Simone believes the creation of fine art goes beyond the mere making of pictures. He says, “The fine artist’s task is to orchestrate visual notes into a harmonious whole. Hopefully, that whole will resonate with viewers on an emotional level.”
Robert supported himself through years of intense study with positions that kept him close to nature and near the sea. Now his distinctive blend of sensual colors, confident brush strokes and captivating light portray the emotions associated with the scenes he loves. Simone’s landscapes and seascapes in oil are highly collected. He often paints on location and has become known in St. Petersburg, Florida as “the painter of Fort Desoto Park". He is happiest with his easel at the water’s edge working to capture his elusive prey - the interplay of land, water and light.
Simone is a respected instructor who strives to inform, encourage and inspire. He is known for both his ability to demonstrate and to explain. Robert calls what he teaches The Art of Principled Self-Expression. He says, “The impulse to paint is an emotional response to nature. But we need some sort of framework through which we can express ourselves adequately.” Simone draws a correlation between music and painting, “In music, the scale provides the basic framework for expression. In painting, the principles of depiction provide the framework for expression. In a sense, painting is translating nature into visual art. As such, it requires a visual language. Once conversant in the visual language, painters discover the ability to express themselves adequately. That’s what I teach, a kind of visual vocabulary.”
