Get To Know The Artist

Biography

Simon Gerard Ford is a South African printmaker and mixed media visual artist working from his home studio in Cape Town. Having settled there more than three decades ago after many years of lecturing in Design and Art in Johannesburg. 

He remains deeply inspired by his local environment and natural open spaces that continue to be the starting point in most of his work. Ford’s creative journey began in childhood, shaped by the farmlands and expansive scenery of the Cape Winelands where he grew up in an old homestead with a wild, rambling garden in the centre of a small village. He was encouraged by his parents to explore a wide range of creative pursuits, including ballet, theatre, piano, painting, and design. 

After winning the Santam Youth Art Competition in 1968, Ford spent several years after school working in design-related fields before enrolling as a mature student in 1978 at the Michaelis School of Fine Art (UCT). He was later awarded the prestigious Irma Stern Scholarship for his MFA studies. During this period, he produced Street Graphics, a series of hand-printed screenprints of public posters confronting the racist visual culture of white apartheid-era South Africa — work regarded as politically provocative at the time. 

Alongside his personal work, Ford has spent many years teaching Art and Design at both tertiary and secondary levels, and continues to offer individual tuition from his studio. Over time, his work has evolved from more representational imagery toward a deeply personal abstract language expressed through monotype, collage and painting. His work reflects an ongoing look at the rhythms of nature, memory, perception, and the shifting space between non-representation and the recognisable forms.

Artist Statement

Relationships between contemporary human experience and the natural landscape are recurring themes in my work, explored through experimental printmaking and mixed-media practice.

My creative interest lies in the process of making and the unexpected directions it can take. Ideas often begin by questioning familiar ways of seeing the world. I am naturally inquisitive and seek out ambiguity, unexpected rhythms and visual connections.

Printmaking and mixed media, combining collage, painting and drawing, are my preferred media. Sketchbook drawings and memory form the foundation of my ideas, supported by photography and close observation of my local environment. Over the years my work has become increasingly intuitive and experimental.

My current work explores archetypes and stereotypes through layers of colour and texture, stencilled and masked forms, and expressive drawn and printed marks. Rather than working towards a predetermined image, I allow the materials and process to influence the final outcome. The finished work often reveals possibilities that could not have been anticipated at the outset.

Many years of teaching art and design have deepened my understanding of the creative process while reinforcing my own practice. Through annual open
studio exhibitions, practical workshops and individual tuition, I share aspects
of my experimental methods, and encourage others to develop their own
creative confidence.