In Realistic Illusion: The meditative artwork of Simon Phelipot

Simon Goinard Phelipot is an illustrator and art director from Paris, France who has been in the artistic profession for the past 7 years. Simon started illustrating naturally with the need to find a media that could express his idea of space, volume, aesthetics, and emotions. The artist mainly works on illustrations for books and does not categorize himself as a full-time painter despite frequent gallery demands and invitations. Sensuality, matter, and the tension between abstraction and figurativism are the main themes in Simon’s art.

“There is a quote by Gaston Bachelard that I like very much and that summarizes my vision of art: to be present in the instant. Our past builds us, determines us, and can't be changed. Our future cannot be touched either, but the present is reachable. That's what art is all about for me, the feeling of an instant build by an entire life, the tension between forms and matter. That’s what I'd like people to see in my work, the fact that we exist for the pure present only”, the brilliant artist tells us.

Simon works as a mentor and professor for a few schools and his work has been displayed in several exhibitions across Paris, Lecce, London, and Zürich. What we love about Simon's art is his incredible skill in bringing out a successful synthesis between the figurative and the abstract. A collection of Simon’s spectacular illustrations can be viewed below.