Robert J. Simone

"For me, each new canvas is a prolonged meditation on the beauty of nature", painter Robert J. Simone says.  Indeed Simone's paintings convey a profound love for the great outdoors.  It's a sense of reverence shared by the those who appreciate and collect his work.

Simone derives inspiration from coastal scenery and marine subjects.  He loves color and the natural harmonies that surround us.  He's also fascinated by the many ways humans give shape, form and function to the world's raw materials.  That's what draws him to the maritime, transportation and industrial subjects he paints so well.  But his first love is the coastal landscape of West Central Florida.

Robert's passion for the outdoors was cultivated growing up in the eastern of suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. "For my brothers and me, the shores of Lake Erie were our playground.  We were water dogs.  Dad owned a boat.  We swam, fished and waterskied all summer.  There were lots of kids in the neighborhood.  And we played all the sports.  But watersports reigned supreme."

Ohio weather wasn't always conducive to playing outdoors.  So, Simone passed time drawing and painting in the comfort of the family home.  His father was a talented hobbyist.  Simone says, "I hung out in the basement with my dad when he was painting.  And I did my first watercolor when I was 4 years old.  It was a still life of stuffed animals on an old piano.  It was painted from life.  Dad helped me spell out "Dogs On Piano" on the bottom of the page.  I still have it."

Simone's early interest in painting blossomed in parochial school.  "The school library had dozens of books on Renaissance Art.  I fell in love with the old masters.  Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Titian, you name it.  I was convinced that those artist were the smartest people that ever lived.  And I wanted to be like them.