Artist and musician, Paul Simonon talks about his new exhibition of paintings made during an intense two-year period of activity first in London during the first lockdown and then over eighteen months in a remote fishing village in Mallorca. The London paintings were made close to Paul's studio in Paddington and reflect the empty streets he encountered on his walks. Lit by street lights he talks of the houses as intimate stage sets for people's daily lives and the profound stillness that transformed life in London during those months. 

Leaving London in the summer of 2020 Simonon travelled to Mallorca intending to focus entirely on his painting and live in isolation. He was lent the use of a room in the fishing village of S'Estaca on the rugged, north coast of the island. With less than ten houses, no shop or bar and one fisherman, the remote location was an ideal spot to concentrate on his work.  He brought his materials and supplies, moving there in October 2020 and staying until the end of the following year painting and carving often late into the night.  

The exhibition is at John Martin Gallery, 38 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4JG until 6 October 2022.

https://www.jmlondon.com/viewing-room...

Born in London in 1955, Paul Simonon is a painter, musician, and designer.  Simonon took up a scholarship at the Byam Shaw School of Art in Kensington (now part of Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design). It was at this time that he met Mick Jones who asked him if he wanted to form a band. As an aspiring painter who had never previously played bass, he first took a lead role in the band’s visual identity, rapidly learning to play the instrument as he went along. Vocalist Joe Strummer joined up with the two on sight and The Clash went on to become one of the most iconic and influential bands of the last 40 years.  Simonon has always been passionate about art, and since the band split in the mid-1980s painting has become as important as his music career. Simonon’s passion for painting began as a boy, his Father an avid amateur painter who used Paul’s bedroom as his studio. It was here, surrounded by books and pictures pinned to the walls that he “first encountered the world of art and beyond”.