Having studied Art History at Manchester University and Fashion and Textiles at Manchester Art College, Simone Sandelson spent ten years designing home furnishing collections for high street multiples.

It was only when she encountered David Cranswick, 'a renaissance painter', that she knew she wanted to remove herself from the commercial world, to paint. She spent three years in his studio, where she learnt an intense discipline: all pigments were painstakingly ground and mixed with oils, gesso panels made layer upon layer, canvas's stretched and sized with rabbits skin glue, glazes made with egg white.

The process began by copying old masters with preliminary drawings in burnt sienna pigment and tones built up in verdacchio (a greeny brown colour). Stronger colours were then glazed into the work to create a powerful translucent appearance. These paintings took at least six months to complete. Simone Sandelson adapted this method to painting portraits of her own family. She then obtained commissions from friends and ultimately by word of mouth, to which she attributes her busy studio today.

Her personal paintings, although owing a great deal to her disciplined training are an expression of her inner experience together with her interest in eastern philosophies especially Buddhism and Taoism- they are stark -

It is the colour, light and simple form that she uses to convey her message and in preference to interpreting them, she uses a quote from "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibrain: "Thought is a bird of space, when trapped in a cage of words, may spread its wings but cannot fly".