Born in Christchurch in 1975, Simon Edwards graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1997. A finalist in the 1997 Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award, Simon has exhibited regularly since 1998. He lives and works in Christchurch and is represented in numerous collections including the Christchurch Art Gallery. Simon Edwards spent his childhood on a farm near Hororata in Canterbury, which has been a major inspiration for his art.

The landscape drawings and paintings of Simon Edwards might actually be labelled ‘dreamscapes' due to their sombre and ethereal nature. Edwards offers us ghostly atmospheric climates, brooding skyscapes and serene pastoral vistas. In this new body of paintings, the misty atmosphere of the mountain pass becomes palpable. A gradual layering of glazes makes the permanent seem transitory and the substantial, unsubstantial. The work builds on sketching trips into the Southern Alps. It sits between a modernistic reliance on the essential qualities of the materials and methods of painting and a regard for the 18c European landscape tradition. I use these two elements as a departure point, for entering into a process of layering and rubbing back, setting up a dialogue between myself, the medium and the landscape. The work becomes a result of reacting to what is happening on the surface at the time, and building on chance effects that present themselves, contributing to a sense of space, distance and movement.