Spotlight: Madeleine Simson, Contemporary Visual Artist

Madeleine Simson has been creative her entire life. After studying art in college, she became a graphic designer. She is now a full-time artist, creating contemporary paintings influenced by wildlife acclimating to our human world. Her work uses bright and cheerful colors, bringing smiles to the viewer.

How did you find yourself on an artist’s path? Always there? Lightbulb moment? Dragged kicking and screaming? Evolving?

I was always the arty kid, even when I was really young I was always painting and coloring. My Christmas presents from Santa were art supplies.

I started drawing Cartoons in Primary school and my parents bought me a drafting table so I could practice drawing in my room for hours and hours.

When I was in high school I did all the art subjects that were offered and was selected to be a finalist in a VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) art show which was hung in the National Gallery of Victoria.

I actually won people’s choice in that prize for my realistic portraits of my teachers. I was selected again the following year for a painting I had done of my friend. So I always knew I wanted to be in the art field but i wasn’t sure exactly what area. I went on to Study Visual arts at University and majored in painting. I then also studied Illustration and graphic design.

How would you describe yourself as an artist?

I would describe myself as a quirky realistic still life painter who loves to use bold colour and shadow. I love to combine subject matters that are normally opposite, nature and animals with industrial design and human consumption.

I’m not someone who takes themselves too seriously, although I am serious about art. I always like to have a little bit of humor in my work, I like my art to make people happy.

Where do you find your inspiration for your designs?

I’ve always struggled with this question because Inspiration can come in so many ways, sometimes I get inspired by sitting and thinking of what would be a fun composition, and sometimes I’ll be driving past an abandoned shopping trolley or a milk crate and think, wow- that looks amazing I want to paint that.

Sometimes commissions will spur creativity, Someone will want me to paint something I had never thought of before’ then I might develop it further leading to a whole new area of subject matter and themes.

I am pretty good with photoshop and creating images from my days as a graphic designer, so sometimes just fiddling with reference photos will lead to some fabulous compositions. I also get inspired by other artists. I was just at the affordable art fair in Melbourne and there were a lot of incredible paintings this year, It makes me feel giddy with all the possibilities!

Do you do series work? How does that affect your approach?

I do and I don’t. I have been working in two separate series for the last few years.

I do a series called ‘whats for lunch’ which is tablescapes and food still lifes and another series which is Bird life and crates. I usually only work in these two areas and the series just never really stops.

However, I am about to start working on a new series which will be a new direction of still life but I’m not sure if it will end or just keep developing into something else.

Do you plan your work out ahead of time, or do you just dive in with your materials and start playing?

I always plan out my paintings in great detail, I will decide how many paintings I am doing for a gallery or show, then create a template with the exact shapes and sizes of the canvases, then I will use Photoshop to get the composition and colours correct. Once I am happy with the composition I will lay the images into the canvas template to make sure the collection works well together. I love planning and knowing exactly how the series will end up looking.

How do you manage your creative time? Do you schedule start and stop times? Or work only when inspired?

I am pretty organised when it comes to my studio time. I have small kids so I need to utilise every available minute of the work day. I will create a list when I get into the studio and tick my jobs off as I go.

I also have a monthly planner and I use that to schedule what commissions I have or what paintings are going where that month.

Describe your creative space.

I work in a lovely light filled bedroom in my in-laws’ home. It has a desk with my computer, and lots of blank canvases and some easels. I am hoping to convert our garage into a studio later in the year, we just bought a new house so there are a few things needing to be done and a studio will be one of them. I am enjoying my mother in laws home cooking while I’m here though.

Do you use a sketchbook or journal? How does that help your work develop?

No, I’ve never been a sketchbook person. I use computer programs and photography more than sketchbooks.

How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?

I usually start a new painting or commission every two weeks. I sometimes work on a few paintings at a time if the compositions require similar colours.

Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?

Last year I did a painting called “where to next’ It was a painting of two Galah cockatoos resting and cleaning themselves on an abandoned shopping trolley.

This trolley was out the front of a backpackers resort in a holiday town called Port Douglas. It’s a town in Northern Queensland where a lot of tourists stay if they want to dive to see the great barrier reef. I’m sure a few young tourists had used the shopping cart to bring back some drinks and groceries and left it out the front of the hostel, then these galahs had come along and taken it as their own. It seemed like the galahs wanted to join the party on the other side of the fence. 

The natural wildlife are forced to acclimate to the world that we have created and it’s sometimes a sad and strange sight. However, it can be fascinating and beautiful. I really enjoy the challenge of making a piece of art out of something as mundane as a shopping trolley. The painting was selected for an unearthed art prize with a Melbourne gallery and I ended up being represented by that gallery. That painting will always be a special one to me as I feel like it really kick started my career.

Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you? 

I think my favourite part is the physical painting of the art.

The most challenging part of making a composition is searching through 1000’s of reference photos I have. Deciding what images are the strongest and then creating compositions in Photoshop. It can take many days to get a few compositions together, the fastest part is the actual painting.

How does your formal art education help your work develop? Does it ever get in the way?

My formal art training was unhelpful really, The only thing I learnt at art school was how to stretch a canvas and how to use oil paints.

My painting teachers were not very supportive. I found I wanted to go into illustration and graphic design rather than to be a painter. My lecturers were a bit nasty. They were pretty unsupportive and would constantly tell us how hard it was to be an artist. We needed to get a backup job because it was so hard to support yourself as an artist.

I’ve come back to painting and being an artist after the trauma of art school finally dissipated. The invention of online galleries and Instagram has been such a great tool for artists who want to get into the industry without the stress of bigger galleries and the intimidating art world.

Is there an overarching theme that connects all of your work?

The theme that connects all my paintings is the idea that our natural environment co-exists and interactswithin our man made industrial spaces and inventions.

I am interested in combining the two separate worlds of our native wildlife and our suburban everyday landscape. It’s interesting to see how these two opposites relate to each other. It seems so unnatural and strange to see our wildlife cleaning themselves on things like milk crates, shopping trolleys ,and bins rather than trees. They are forced to acclimate in the world that we have created. It’s sometimes a sad and strange sight, however, it can be fascinating and beautiful.

I love the challenge of making something as mundane as a shopping trolley into a beautiful painting. It’s usually an item, one doesn’t usually pay much attention to, even though we interact with them almost daily.

How does your environment influence your creativity?  

I live in an area of Melbourne that has a lot of native birds wandering the streets and parks. I am lucky to be able to take reference photos of native creatures and birds for my paintings.

I also live close to a shopping center. I am always coming across abandoned shopping trolleys and crates with birds making little homes in these things.

I love looking out of my car window and seeing a beautiful chair with amazing shadows on someone’s nature strip getting thrown away for hard waste collection. I’ll jump out of the car and take a few photos for later paintings. Especially if it’s later in the day and shadows are long and luscious.

Being in the city, there is always something interesting going on. I love making trash into treasure. Seeing some upside down colorful plastic chairs gets me excited. I know how to create a beautiful painting from some very unusual subject matter.

I find being an artist one of the most exciting things around. I’m never bored by it.

I find painting to be something I need to do, it’s like breathing. My mind slows down and I can block out the whole world when I’m painting for a few hours. If i don’t get a few hours every day to paint, or be creative in some way, I will get irritated and antsy.

I’m never not motivated to get into the studio and paint or even take some reference images. Even when I’m on vacation, I will need to do some kind of creative work so I can scratch the itch of needing to create. I love coming up with ideas and working out how I’m going to make them happen.

What was the biggest challenge that you encountered on your creative journey? What did you learn from it?

The biggest challenge I faced was to learn to trust myself and my skills to become an artist.

After art school, I didn’t have enough faith that I had the ability to earn a decent living from painting. I went into graphic design for ten years before I was confident enough to work for myself as an artist.

When I left art school in 2004, it wasn’t that easy to work as a full time artist. You had to be represented by a gallery and selling work online wasn’t really a thing yet. Instagram wasn’t even around then so getting your art noticed was a lot more difficult.

In the last 10 years there have been so many online galleries and other avenues to sell and promote yourself and your artwork. I wish I had taken the leap years ago, however all the tools I learnt with graphic design and illustration have helped me become a better painter so it all comes around I suppose.

Where can people see your work?

My website madeleinesimson.com and Instagram (@madeleinesimson) are the main places where I share my artwork. I am also represented by Satch and Co Gallery and Art to Art Gallery in Melbourne. Both galleries have a few pieces of my work on their websites.

Interview posted September 2024.