Landscapes

Simon wound up moving into an art studio in downtown Philadelphia. The studio was located around 17th and Locust Street in downtown Philadelphia, there he began to follow what he hoped would be his life’s work. This is a view from their studio window that he painted around 1919.

This is an interesting painting. So far ahead of its time. Take note of the pointed skyscrapers. No such structures existed in the world at that time. Also seen is the concept of a double decker suspension bridge, this did not exist in that time either .You will also notice what appears to be a good size commercial airplane (Jet) not yet available at the time of this painting. The truck is heading into the future.

The entire summer of 1934 Simon honeymooned in a little farm town called Upper Black Eddy in a barn, located on the banks of the Pennsylvania Canal. Here is a painting of the view from there.

This early painting of the Gondola is quite ethereal but as you see from the raw canvas in the back of the boat, it is missing the Gondolier; he really didn’t like painting people. He took that lighthearted and found it amusing.

This painting hung in our family home on the living room wall for years. Many were the times that I would lay on the floor and stair up at it imagining hiking deep into the woods, stopping for a drink of water from the creek. The perspective would draw me in and the adventures would begin. To view this properly you must be eight to ten feet away from it.

This painting is titled Morning Sunlight one, by far in my opinion, one of the “technically” finest paintings of his life. I believe they are comparable to any of the finest paintings ever done.

​

Simon really appreciated the style and technique of Franz Ritter Van Stuck, Born in Germany 1863, died 1928 His painting below, of “Sounds of Spring” from 1910 was a strong influence on Dad, as he matured, he painted this Homage to him. Simon decided to do the painting in all pallet-knife, produced approximately 1924.

This piece is all done in pallet knife (a technique that he excelled in) and captures the cloudy, stormy and bleak day on the Pennsylvania Canal.

The

The subject of an open gate always leaves the viewer with a real sense of wonder.

If you look closely, you can see the section that Simon extracted out of the USPS mural. He loved this portion of the Mural so he did a study of it.