Curious, experimental, and clear-eyed, Simon Henwood is a master of many media. Since he left Exeter College in 1986 with a degree in mixed arts, painting, animation and illustration, he’s had numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world and made various exclusive video projects for artists such as Roisin Murphy, Devendra Banhart, Imogen Heap and The Delays.

Since everything in his art, at some point requires drawing and the ability to conceive on paper, painting has always been at the center of his career.

Throughout his work, Henwood has made his superb draftsmanship apparent in producing memorable portraits and observations by engaging directly with his subjects. He uses gouache and most recently oil paint, to capture the people from his surroundings with extreme detail and definition.

A recurrent theme in Henwood’s paintings and mixed-media works has been the exploration of the complex social and cultural terrain of childhood and adolescence. Recently however, the work has been heading in another direction. Narrative themes are characterized by a frank, mundane realism derived from Pop art and photography. It is done with such artistic depth that it provides his work with a naturalistic dimension. Moving from a semi-expressionist form of pop art, he developed a highly personal realistic style, producing images saturated with color in which longing, emptiness and solitude all hang in the air. His meticulously executed realist paintings, imbued with a pervasive mood of alienation, are noble, lyrical, loving and also capture something fundamental, a diaristic directness. They bring about a sense of life and energy yet still capture that feeling of abandonment and solitude hiding deep within his subjects.

As a director Henwood sees live action and animation as two sides to the same thing, inextricably and increasingly linked by the growing demand for postproduction techniques that cross the boundaries. He enjoys the cooperative facet of directing and the rewards of seeing an idea come to life, be it meticulously animated or carefully crafted moving images such as the ones in Poor Johnny Pumpkin. This fascinating project was toured to museums by the Museum of Modern Art, New York and tells the story of a pumpkin-headed boy whose extreme sensitivity to UV light forces him to remain indoors during the daytime. The work has now been developed into a groundbreaking 3-D computer-animated TV series.

In addition to all of this, Henwood has created artwork for Roisin Murphy’s latest album and his paintings have been adapted for use in a line of designer T-shirts. Henwood has also designed a plushy toy named ‘Klong.’ an endearing creature with long arms. Klong can’t see or hear, yet he senses your kindness and actually hugs you back.

As a painter, illustrator, animator, writer, art director, publisher and filmmaker, Simon Henwood embraces all aspects of his art, infusing each project with originality and integrity.