simon quadrat born 1946

Artist's Statement

I was born in London, the son of Jewish emigres who separately fled Germany in the 1930s. At school I painted factories and desolate urban scenes. I read books on art and visited galleries, but I had no thought of becoming an artist. Instead, I read law at university and went on to a career as a criminal barrister in the Temple in London and then from 1985, in Bristol. In 2000 I succumbed to a strong urge to paint professionally and so gave up the Bar to become a full time artist.

As for my work, the paintings must speak for themselves. The viewer will see themes, preoccupations and influences. Artists from the 14th century to the present are an acknowledged influence, in particular some of the Modern British and European painters from the immediate pre and post war period. Documentary films, as in the GPO Film Unit and Recording Britain, and archive photographs recording images and events of the 1950s, the period of my childhood in London, also all supplement my memory, feed my imagination and metamorphose into my painting.

• 2004 Elected member Royal West of England Academy
• 2007 RWA Academician's Chairman