Robert J. Simone</a>

A Little More About The Artist

My wife Penny and I live, work and play in St Petersburg, Florida. St Pete has, arguably, the finest system of waterfront parks in the U.S. We enjoy close proximity to downtown, as well as many of the world's top-rated beaches, such as Ft. DeSoto, Clearwater and Sand Key.

My Story

Finding Extraordinary Beauty in Ordinary Places….

 

My three older brothers and I grew up on the waters of Lake Erie, fishing, boating and water skiing.  This was the life our parents, Frances and Johnnie Simone, created for us.  I think I can speak for John Jr., Ken and Marty when I say we loved it.   We all took many things from our parents that continue to shape who we are today.  We value family, the Catholic faith and the great outdoors.  I owe them each a debt of gratitude because they each have done so much for me.

 

I feel extra fortunate because I was blessed with some measure of our father’s talent for drawing and painting.  Dad never got to pursue fine art as a career and I almost missed it, too.  Here is my story.

 

My earliest memory of painting is from the age of four.  Emulating my father, I went into the basement to paint.  I set three of my stuffed animals on the old piano and made a crude watercolor of them.  With Dad’s help I even wrote a title on it, “Dogs on the Piano”.   Mom saved it and I still have it somewhere.  It’s rough but, with some imagination, you can tell that they are stuffed dogs.  I spent my ensuing childhood drawing from books and magazines. 

 

When I graduated from high school I was offered an art scholarship to the Pittsburgh Institute of Art and a golf scholarship to Muskingum College.  The art school had no golf team and the golf school had no art department so I made the not so brilliant decision to attend Ohio University.  I say it wasn’t brilliant because my parents had to pay, I got cut from the golf team and the art department was disappointing.   After 2 ½ years of majoring in Frisbee and bong hits I dropped out.  That was 1978.  With my brother Marty’s help, I made my way to Florida and eventually went back to school in 1986.  I paid my own way and received a BSCE in Structural Engineering from University of So. Florida, Tampa.

 

I never used that degree, instead pursuing a 22 year career mowing lawns.  It wasn’t glamorous but it was outdoors and it was profitable.  During this time I did no artwork at all.  I thought about it some, but always viewed pursuing art as out of reach and a waste of time.

 

Suddenly, in 1993, all that began to change.  After a long term relationship ended I suffered high levels of anxiety from difficulty adjusting to being alone.  I sought the help of two family counselors at Catholic Charities.  One was a lay woman and the other a priest.  I took note when, on separate occasions, both referred to me as a “frustrated artist”.  It was then that I began thinking about the real “love lost” in my life, drawing and painting.

 

I recovered from the depression and anxiety, read a book called, “I’d Rather Be Married”, and devised a strategy for meeting my wife (more on this in another blog).  The strategy worked and I married my lovely wife Penny in 1998.  Guess what, she saw me as a frustrated artist too.  She urged me to start taking some art classes in late 1999 or early 2000.  One of my first instructors, Luis De La Lama, put me on a path of growth when he introduced me to painting from life and taught me to how to see colors and values.  Since then I have taken workshops from several of the country’s most outstanding artists.  I have gotten better but still have a long way to go.  In 2007 I sold the lawn business so I could spend more time painting.  With Penny’s blessing I will continue to paint and grow as an artist until the good Lord takes me home.

 

Whatever successes I achieve in art will remain rooted in my family upbringing.  It was then that I learned to prefer the simple things and find extraordinary beauty in ordinary places.

 

I hope you enjoy my work.

 

Sincerely,

Robert J. Simone