Simon Winegar
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“Do you see the deer, kids? They’re right over there, just behind that first group of trees.” Young Simon Winegar’s dad would often slow the car down as the family drove the wooded road to Grandma’s house so the children would have a better chance of spotting the wildlife. The foothills of Bountiful, Utah were filled with brush oak and other small trees, which sometimes made this difficult. To Simon’s dismay, he would never catch a glimpse of one of the creatures unless it was very close to the car.

On one such trip, his dad spotted a whole herd and stopped the car so the family could observe them. There were quite a few deer visible, but no bucks among the group. After a few minutes of searching intensely, Simon’s older brother Seth was the first to spot an antler-topped head hidden deep in the trees. He pointed it out to Simon, who was confused at first.

Simon scanned the trees slowing, hoping desperately to see the animal. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally noticed a small white spot among the green. As he looked closer, he saw that the white was actually part of a snout. That snout was attached to a head, which was attached to antlers. He had found the buck!

"That day I learned that there is more to seeing things than just looking at them. The deer was there the whole time. I just had to learn how to see it. I had to look for the white of the deer’s snout or the curve of his antlers. I had to learn the importance of studying and understanding the color, shape, shadow and mood of an object or setting. In art, one must pay close attention to these indicators. If they are ignored, the idea that is to be presented looses its message and/or meaning. Seeing things is of foremost importance in art.”

Simon has always informally planned on becoming a professional painter. It wasn’t until his late teenage years in Madrid, Spain, however, that he made the conscious decision to dedicate himself fully to his dream.

“I basically gave myself an ultimatum. I told myself I had to become an affiliate in a respected gallery by a certain date. If I hadn’t made it by then, I would follow some other road. Looking back, I don’t know if I actually would’ve quit, but I’m glad I didn’t have to find out.”

It would be hard for Simon to imagine doing anything else because he has been drawing and painting for as long as he can remember. As children, he and his brother Seth would sit in front of the television for hours drawing what they saw on the screen. He still looks back on those days with fondness, and a faint smile crosses his lips when he talks about them.

“I remember drawing lots of stalagmites and flying saucers. Those were great times.”

His parents have always supported Simon’s interest in art, and he is quick to credit his mother as his “foundation of encouragement”. Not a Christmas went by that he did not receive a new set of Crayola watercolor paints to replace the exhausted ones given to him the previous year.

Since those days, Simon has taken his painting outside the living room. His favorite subjects have changed from flying spacecraft to nature and rolling countrysides. An avid outdoorsman, Simon has always been drawn to the natural beauty of the earth. Although he prefers to paint on location, he also spends a great deal of time painting from his own photographs or drawings and can occasionally be found working on still-lifes. When it comes to choosing his subjects, he doesn’t seem to prefer any specific method.

“Sometimes it is a problem that I’m eager to solve, other times there is a certain mood I want to capture. A lot of times I will have an idea in my head, and I will look for something similar to use as a model.”

His motivations for the emphasis of certain subjects in his paintings seem just as varied as his methods for choosing them. “In some of my paintings there is a definite reason or underlying motive for why I created it. In others, I just painted it because it made me feel good inside. I don’t really claim a ‘style’. I’d rather have people look at my work and not have a predetermined notion of what it should be.” Although his methods cannot always be explained by a certain technique, or his paintings defined by a certain style, the success of his artwork cannot be denied. Simon is now featured in close to half a dozen galleries, and was recently chosen as one of Southwest Art magazine’s annual “21 under 31” up and coming artists. He has spent time abroad studying art in the Pais Vasco and Catalunya regions of Spain. Due to the high demand for his work he struggles to find time for the leisure activities he enjoys, such as rock climbing and mountain biking.

The popularity of his work and its high gallery demand are testaments to the fact that Simon has come a long way from the child who sat in front of his television sketching flying saucers-- all the way to realizing his dream as a successful artist. -Garrett Biesinger