S IMONE S A N D E L S O N
Copyright © Chris Beetles Ltd 2026 8 & 10 Ryder Street, St James’s London SW1Y 6QB 020 7839 7551 gallery@chrisbeetles.com www.chrisbeetles.com ISBN 978-1-914906-19-0 Cataloguing in publication data is available from the British Library A Chris Beetles Gallery Publication Edited by Chris Beetles, Fiona Nickerson and Pascale Oakley-Birch Design by Pascale Oakley-Birch Photography by Giulio Sheaves Reproduction by www.cast2create.com Colour separation and printing by Park Graphius
Front cover: Two-faced Partridge I [50] Cover aps: Prostration [detail of 36] Title page: Self Portrait Biography page: Simone painting in her studio, July 2026 Back cover: White Stand, Red Sun [47]
SIMONE S A N D E L S O N
C HR I S B E ETLES G ALLERY
ABOUT SIMONE Simone designed fashion and home furnishings for high street multiples. It was only when she encountered David Cranswick, a ’Renaissance’ painter, that she left the commercial world and spent three years training in his studio. The process began by copying old masters with preliminary drawings in burnt sienna pigment and tones built up in verdacchio. Stronger colours were then glazed into the work to create a powerful translucent appearance. These paintings often took six months to complete. Simone developed this technique and painted portrait commissions (animals and humans) alongside nding her own means of self-expression. Her work consists of several phases including: The early, darker, more academic phase in uenced by Renaissance training. The paintings inspired by letters and poems sent to her by a death row prisoner in Atlanta, Georgia. Her move to rural Oxfordshire from London and her inner response to the beauty of the nature surrounding her. A more playful period experimenting with subjects and objects for their beauty, humour and resonance.
ARTIST STATEMENT Painting must be real and honest. It doesn’t need to be earnest, but it does need to provoke a visceral response – laughter, outrage or empathy, despair, a sense of mystery or just to be touched by its simple beauty. My work has been formed by many diverse elements – a formal training in a traditional portrait painter’s studio, an encounter with a prisoner on death row in the US, teaching art to refugees, prisoners and hospice patients and the wisdom of Buddhist philosophy. I am inspired by Rembrandt’s self-portraits, the frescoes of Fra Angelico as well as the work of Frida Kahlo, Gerhard Richter, Luc Tuymans, Mark Rothko, Peter Doig and many more. Kafka wrote: ‘Books must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen in the soul’, and this resonates with me in painting. I have seen the transformative power of art in myself, in those whom I’ve taught, as well as in those who are impacted by the art they experience.
Quali cations:
Publications/ Radio/ Television:
BA Hons, Art History, Manchester University
Resurgence Magazine, ‘Inside Out’ by David Cadman, 2004
Fashion and Textile Design, Manchester School of Art
The Times (Law section) ‘A Brush with the Cruelty of Death Row’ by David Pannick, 2007
The Practice and Experience of Art Therapy, Goldsmiths College Art Teacher’s Certi cate, Institute of Education, University of London Certi cate in Mindfulness Training
‘Behind the Picture’ catalogue, Crane Kalman Gallery, London, 2013 ‘The Spirit of Denchworth’ catalogue, 2024
Restorative Justice Facilitator
Radio 4, ‘Today Program’, with Toby Jones and Philippe Sands, 2007
Exhibitions:
Radio 4, ‘Midweek’, with Libby Purves, 2008
‘Exonerate Jack’, Somerset House, London, 2007
World Service, ‘Outlook’, with Matthew Bannister, 2008
‘Behind the Picture’, Crane Kalman Gallery, London, 2013
Radio 4, ‘The Why Factor’, 2010
‘When the Iron Bird Flies’, The Hive, Dalston, London, 2018, (Tibet Relief Fund)
Sky News, interviewed by Eamonn Holmes, 2008
All artworks are signed and executed in oil, and all quotes are by Simone Sandelson, 2026, unless otherwise stated.
1 The Letters 30 x 23 ¾ inches
‘I started writing to a death row prisoner in May 2004, having been put in touch by the charity, Human Writes. This is an extract from one of many letters written to me by Jack Alderman from death row, Atlanta, Georgia, over a four year period: “Your letters impact my world profoundly. It centres on the acceptance, it is fuelled by freedom. I trust you to let me be who I am. I am not suspicious or defensive. You cannot imagine the assault on the soul when the interrogations begin. I have no complaints about doubts or questions, they are reasonable. What can depress is a façade for curiosity ...” All Jack’s letters were written on the same prison le paper, placed in the same regulation envelope and stamped with a prison stamp to indicate they had been read by the authorities. They contained the unfolding of an extraordinary story of a deeply spiritual man, who had been on death row for 34 years for the murder of his wife, Barbara. It is the story of the destruction of evidence by the State of Georgia to cover up their own improprieties and a confession by the actual murderer, who was o ered his freedom by the State, in return for implicating Jack Alderman in the murder. Hundreds in the US and abroad, including the prison governor, thought him to be innocent. He was executed in 2008 in spite of a campaign to try and prove his innocence. New evidence was discovered to show he was not at the scene of the crime, but the Court refused a retrial on the basis there were no witnesses. The witnesses were both dead.’
2 I Quote David 48 x 30 inches
‘We are permitted to go in the yard twice a week; yesterday it was wet and windy, I was asked why I participate? I could remind them of the six years spent without ever going outside; but I quote David and explain that I commune with God through the trees, the birds and the sky.’ Jack Alderman
‘I spent countless hours sitting outside dressing rooms as she presented one out t after another, for my opinion. I did not complain. It was my pleasure.’ Jack Alderman, 2006 3 Memories of Barbara 48 x 30 inches
‘Barbara, Jack’s wife, was found dead in a creek. He was accused of her murder. He pinned a photo of this painting on his cell wall and said she would have been honoured.’
4 On the Garden Gate 23 ½ x 15 ¾ inches
5 Lures 19 ½ x 23 ½ inches
6 Fishing Flies on a Board 10 x 16 inches
7 Still Life with Foxglove and Lizard 17 ½ x 15 inches
8 Cockatoo Watercolour 7 ½ x 7 ½ inches
10 Help! 16 ½ x 11 ½ inches
9 Sheep in a Bright Landscape Watercolour 6 ½ x 5 ½ inches
11 After She Left 48 x 36 inches
‘This dress united four generations of a family after WW2, thanks to the insertion of a photo in a newspaper of a small girl wearing this dress, 60 years after she had been become separated from her family.’
12 Dress with Strawberries Inspired by a play, ‘Lost Property’, by Katie Hims 29 x 21 ½ inches
13 Whitewash 38 x 38 inches
14 Doves at Home 15 ¾ x 11 ½ inches
15 Snowy Owl 13 ½ x 10 ½ inches
17 Dreaming of Flies 13 x 9 ½ inches
16 Flight to the Nest 13 ½ x 10 ½ inches
18 Breakfast Visitors 12 x 9 ½ inches
19 Alpaca on Violet 12 x 9 ½ inches
21 Sheep I 9 x 11 ½ inches
22 Sheep II 9 x 11 ½ inches
23 Sheep III 9 x 11 ½ inches
20 Alpaca on Blue 12 x 10 inches
24 Sheep IV 9 x 11 ½ inches
25 Sheep V 9 x 11 ½ inches
26 Sheep VI 9 x 11 ½ inches
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27 Supper Time The Maine Coon Bros 19 ½ x 15 ½ inches
28 Stairway to Heaven 36 x 24 inches
‘Being chased by tigers, the monkey knows his demise is inevitable. He notices one luscious strawberry at the cli ’s edge and enjoys its sweet taste. “Carpe Diem” is the message.’
29 Monkey Myth [Buddhist Parable] 30 x 20 inches
30 Charles and Al e 15 x 23 inches
‘In 2013, I travelled to Dharamsala in India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile, to give a workshop to orphaned Tibetan children living there. My aim was to enable them to express themselves through paintings and narrative. The results were both beautiful and heartbreaking and were exhibited at a gallery in East London in the hope of bringing awareness of the annihilation of a compassionate, non-violent people. The children had been sent on the long treacherous walk across the Himalayas, to escape persecution by the Chinese in Tibet, where they were denied the right to practice Buddhism and speak Tibetan. This was the ultimate sacri ce by their parents to preserve their Tibetan culture for the future. Tibet House London had organised a driver and a translator for me in Dharamsala. When I arrived at the Tibetan Children’s Village, there was a large banner running across the entrance “OTHERS BEFORE SELF” and I was shown around by these two novice monks in the painting. The school motto was in action everywhere.’
31 Tibetan Boys 16 x 20 inches
32 The Ark 36 x 27 ½ inches
‘There’s a beauty in the red skullcaps, signifying the rank and ecclesiastical authority of the Cardinals vying to be Pope. But there is also jealousy and manipulation behind the holy robes. The small pu of smoke is the ultimate goal.’
33 A Pu of Smoke 27 ¾ x 35 ¾ inches
‘The tall, white, ceremonial mitres are echoed by the white seagulls, representing the truth and freedom that lies beyond.’
34 The Flock 23 ½ x 31 ½ inches
‘This shared sisterhood represents devotion and humility; the tiny gure in the right-hand corner suggests that enlightenment need not be austere. It can have whiskers.’
35 Nun the Wiser 23 ½ x 27 ½ inches
‘On July 13 2012, thousands of followers of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood gathered in Tahrir Square to pray and express their support for President Mohammed Morsi, disappointing millions of Egyptians who had staged an uprising in the very same square the previous year, risking their lives for a meaningful democracy.’
36 Prostration 39 x 32 inches
‘Connection between the earthly realm and the boundless realm beyond.’
37 Bird and Red Moon 36 x 24 inches
‘Unless you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.’ C G Jung
38 Consciousness Watercolour 16 x 15 inches
39 Night Monkey 19 ½ x 15 ¾ inches
‘I read an article in a newspaper about goats climbing trees to eat fruit. Apparently this only happens in parts of Morocco where the goats nd the fruits of the argan tree irresistible (they taste like olives). I painted this as a testament to the goats who will no longer be able to enjoy these fruits because they produce argan oil, which is now being sold as an anti-aging product. The farmers follow the goats from tree to tree collecting their excrement in which the undigested seeds are hidden, and grind them into oil. Those marketing the oil felt it was not an attractive thought to put goat’s excrement on your face and have campaigned to keep the goats away from the argan trees forever. How sad that we will no longer be able to witness this adorable sight and that they are banished from whatever the Moroccan equivalent of Eden may be. This is a memory of their days in paradise.’ 40 Goats in a Tree 28 ½ x 23 ½ inches
41 Black-faced Sheep with Mistletoe 20 x 24 inches
42 Night Scene with Dog 24 x 20 inches
43 Lone White Peacock 19 ½ x 15 ½ inches
44 The Long Drive 20 x 16 inches
45 Birds of a Feather 15 ¾ x 12 ¼ inches
46 Tropical Moon 11 ½ x 8 ¼ inches
47 White Stand, Red Sun 31 x 23 ½ inches
48 Only Al e Knows 29 ½ x 20 inches
49 Wishing 25 x 31 ½ inches
50 Two-faced Partridge I 24 x 18 inches
51 The Birth of Leo 39 ½ x 32 ½ inches
52 Two-faced Partridge II 47 ½ x 29 ½ inches
53 Super Moon and Ruin 20 x 24 inches
54 Re ections 32 x 23 ½ inches
55 The End of Democracy 28 ¾ x 21 inches
56 The Way 23 ½ x 19 ½ inches
C H RIS BEET LES GALLERY 8 & 10 Ryder Street, St James’s London SW1Y 6QB 020 7839 7551 gallery@chrisbeetles.com www.chrisbeetles.com