GALLERY NEWS

What does Western Heritage mean to you?

I think at some point in life we’re all looking for our roots, an understanding of what it means, and where we go from here. My heritage is quite western, so part of what I do in my work is simply striving to understand more of myself, where I come from and where I’m going.

How do you approach a new idea?

I’m not sure if I do, or if the approach/idea finds me. I don’t have a singular source or process necessarily. I’m rarely able to “make” an approach happen. When an idea finds me, naturally, organically, I find it becomes something worth working on and it tends to be successful. When I force an idea or approach, it tends to be more, what’s the word?…disastrous. Today, I spend more time listening to that inspirational approach than I do forcing something because “I’m an artist and that’s what I do.

How do you feel when looking at a blank page or canvas? How do you overcome or embrace that feeling?

I think the two most debilitating things for an artist are self-doubt and a blank canvas. Better to get something down as quickly as possible. It’s like warming up before a run. If you don’t, you’re likely to hurt yourself. It’s good to put a quick wash down, a scribble even, that way you get things moving… nothing will likely stay there, but you started. That’s a big part of finishing.

What in your process brings you the most joy or satisfaction?

Besides the moment when you find someone that loves what you did as much as you do? (Obviously that’s up there in the joy category). I would say, when something just “reads” right. You can paint the same tree trunk a hundred times, usually it will look good…sometimes it’ll look perfect. I don’t know what causes that, but it’s a wonderful thing when it happens.

How do you feel your work has changed in the last year? What have you been exploring lately?

I think I’ve painted with more intention, more regularly, than ever before. I don’t know how to explain it better than that.

What would you want a viewer to know about your work?  Or – what feeling do you imagine your work evokes in a viewer?

Things, places and moments matter. You matter. I don’t mean that in a materialistic or worldly way.  It’s not about the thing, but the experience and the growth and the joy, and even the pain. Sometimes we forget that in this crazy world.

Do you have anything additional to share – method, approach, stories, symbolism, intention, rose, thorn – about the works featured in Western Heritage?

I’m pretty sure this is true regarding art and probably life also: joy creates beauty, hardship and pain create meaning… if you let it.

Simon Winegar is a Utah-based artist. An avid outdoorsman, the artist 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. 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.”