Simon Marshall

Simon Marshall works in cartoons and photography, and in the two together. A large body of his work has been built around a single character, Beanman, inspired by his daughter, and follows that figure’s life, relationships, thoughts, struggles and pleasures in the world. Alongside this, he makes photographs into which he introduces interventions of colour and shape.

He trained and worked first as a furniture maker, producing commission pieces for clients around the world, painting and drawing for his own pleasure throughout. He then moved to a public-facing role supporting visually impaired people, which he credits with giving him both the social skills and much of the subject matter for new work, and he began exhibiting. When he came to make art full time he set about distilling his ideas down to essentials, working for a period with photography before settling on the Beanman figure.

He prints on Hahnemuehle German etch and on canvas. He has been Chair of the Lonely Arts Club since 2017 and is a member of the Norwich 20 Group, and he shows his work in physical exhibitions in the expectation that people who stand in front of it will identify with the character more readily than they would on a screen.