Simon Kramer has always had a keen interest in art and was usually the first suspect after lipstick cartoons were found drawn on the hallway wall.
When he was young, his mother used to take him into the local art galleries to give him a chance to look at the beautiful paintings on display. Paintings by Badcock, Thomas, Cook Beadle, Haladay were of special interest and seemed to have a light all of their own.
Simon’s artistic endeavors were encouraged as a boy when his painting of captain Ahab on the back of the great white whale from Moby Dick was hung in the Queenstown library.
As a teenager Simon was asked by the vice principal of his school, why he wasn’t studying school cert art. It seems some of his sketches were passed on to him by an observant teacher. For some reason Simon thought he was expected to take the classes his brothers had taken before him and they didn’t include art.
Local artist Mark Thomas lived at the Kramers home for a short time and Simon was further inspired by his work and had the chance to watch him paint a still life painting set up on their dining room table.
Simon began to paint in oils in the late 1980s and by the year 2000 was committing at least 15 hours a week to his art practice.
In 2012 he left work and took on painting as a full time career. He painted outdoors from life predominantly using the direct painting method alla prima.
In 2018 after a period of slow sales Simon went back into the workforce where he now works as a foreman panel beater in a restoration workshop. On the weekends he paints and works In the garden.
Moving forward, Simon will be building a new studio gallery at his home and is considering some new directions in his painting. With retirement just around the corner, he plans to re-apply himself to the commercial aspects of full-time painting .