Robert J. Simone
MASTER ARTIST
Unlock Your Artistic Potential
Mentorship is the fastest way to go from where you are today, to where you want to be!
Learn How Mentorship Works or join this mentors group below.
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Mentoring Emerging Artists
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MEDIUMS: Oil
SPECIALTY: ✔ Technique ✔ Plein Air
Seeking the True, the Good and the Beautiful, One Brushstroke at A Time
What moves an artist to spend his life creating? Painter Robert J. Simone says, “For me, each new canvas is a prolonged meditation on the beauty of nature.” Indeed, Simone’s paintings convey a profound love for the great outdoors. It’s a reverence shared by those who appreciate and collect his work.
Simone derives inspiration from coastal scenery and marine subjects. He’s also fascinated by the many ways humans give shape, form and intention to the world’s raw materials. That’s what draws him to the maritime, transportation and industrial subjects he paints so well. But his first love is the coastal landscape of West Central Florida.
Robert’s EXPERTISE
Listed below are this Mentor’s specialty skills. Join this group if you want to grow in these areas.
Specialty: ✔ Technique ✔ Plein Air
Technical:
Color and Composition
Teaching How To Self Critique
Providing Art Critiques
Studio Setup for Art Production
Technique Demos
Supplies and Tools – what to use, where to save, where to spend
Marketing:
Artist Statement & CV
Business:
Pricing Artwork
Approaching Galleries
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select your mentorship group
If the group you're interested in has a waitlist, you have the option to join another group to get started. When your group opens we can transfer you over.
Your Membership Includes (click here):
- Mentorship Session: Meet via video conference for a monthly 2-hour session with your Mentor and small group. You choose the mentor, we provide the group!
- Mid-Month Session: Meet via video conference for a 1-hour session with your small group and Navigator to connect, share progress, encouragement, and support.
- Weekly Events: Attend LIVE weekly events online, on hot topics like Finding Your Style, Composition & Critiques, plus master DEMOS. Access event recordings!
- MyStudio: Access your private online studio space equipped with business tools and Mentorship Session Recordings.
- Chat Group: Access your private online chat group to connect with your small group and Navigator (group facilitator) anytime.
- Discounts: Enjoy member discounts on LIVE and ON-DEMAND courses, art supplies, and more!
EMERGING
Mentorship MembershipFocus: Technique
• Skills: Brushwork & mark-making, Color, How to self critique
• Medium: Acrylic, Oil
• Style: Impressionism, Painterly, Realism
• Subject Matter: Interiors, Landscape, Seascape
Focus: Creative Process & Mindset
• Skills: Bodies of work, Artistic voice development, Confidence & courage
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Next session: September 18, 2025
On the 3rd Thursday of every month
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM MDT Thu
Not your timezone? Click below
Group Focus
This group is more than a class and more than mentoring. It's your home for encouragement and inspiration. We cover the many varied topics relating to fine representational painting from motivation and conception to production and marketing. Our main focus is cultivating a unique artistic vision and fostering growth. Emphasis is on the varied aspects of representational painting, like mastering light, loose brushwork, and edge control. We'll explore various styles and techniques with an eye toward clarifying our own personal vision. Sessions include demos, paint-along exercises, and painting makeovers. You'll receive pro-tips for painting indoors and out. As well as for exhibiting your work in shows and galleries. We'll review submissions for exhibitions and discuss how to approach galleries. Let Robert and his 20 years of experience help you chart your course and take your work to the next level! As Robert is fond of saying, "Good things happen when you paint!"
You Will Learn:
• To foster your own growth.
• To take your work to the next level.
• Master the basics of painting light, brushwork, mark-making and edge control
• Prepare submissions for shows and galleries.
• How to overcome adversities like rejection, doubt and artist block.
I’d like to share a bit of my painting journey in hopes that it will both encourage and inspire others. This is especially for all the other late bloomers and boomers. Not that I’m some great artist. Truly, I’m just a kid in his 60’s with some brushes and canvas who loves to paint!
There’s been plenty of ups and downs, bumps, bruises and numerous hiccups along the way. As the Tom Petty song says, “Some doors are opened. Some roads are blocked.” Sometimes I’ve been my own worst enemy. Sometimes the ball didn’t bounce my way. Other times it did. Regardless of circumstances I kept painting because I believe that’s what I’m supposed to be doing. Surely some good would come of it.
The interest in drawing and painting emerged as far back as I can remember. In fact, I did my first painting at age 4. Dad was a pretty good amateur watercolorist! He was my early inspiration. So, that’s where it all started.
Like a lot of kids, I had the Jon Gnagy Art Kit and the 120-count Crayola Crayons Box Set. (Sea Green is still my favorite!) I wore them out. Many Ohio winter days were spent wiling away the hours drawing, coloring and painting. It seemed like a natural thing to do. I read dad’s drawing books and withdrew library books on Renaissance art. I wanted to be an artist in the worst way.
After high school I went to a public university to study painting. That’s where things went awry. The curriculum lacked basics and structure. I became disillusioned and switched my major to frisbee and bong hits. After
a year of that I dropped out and started bouncing around from job to job.
Fast forward 20 years, having benefitted from urban sprawl, I was the owner of a successful lawn maintenance company in Tampa, Florida. I bought a house, a truck and boat. Life was good but I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing. I had done no drawing or painting since dropping out of college. I was beginning to feel a mysterious sense of dis-ease.
That’s about the time I got married. Soon, my wife Penny realized I was a frustrated artist. We went to museums, galleries and art shows where I would critique all the paintings. Pretty arrogant since I wasn’t painting myself. She knew what I needed and gave me the push to start takingweekly classes.
That got me started but I outgrew the classes quickly. They weren’t serious enough. I wanted the basics and structure I sought years ago. That’s when I discovered Plein Air Magazine. A whole new realm of possibilities opened. Surely painting outdoors on location would be the best way to develop real painting chops. If I could do that, I could do anything!
I took workshops with artists like Scott L. Christensen, Stapleton Kearns and others. My thirst for basic principles was quenched. I painted, studied and entered local plein airs. I did well in some. Not so well in others. But I kept painting.
Eventually I got into national level plein airs. And discovered that one of the best parts of those events was the camaraderie of other artists. There are so many talented artists out there. And so many whose work I admire. Too many of them to mention have become my de facto mentors. I painted alongside the best. I looked over their shoulders and asked questions.
Oh, and yad da, yad da, yad da, one of my paintings received the Grand Prize at Plein Air Easton 2024. I’ve received awards at other national shows. And made Signature Member in some prestigious organizations. My paintings have landed in some surprising collections. I’ve taught many workshops throughout the eastern US. And I’ve been blessed to mentor other artists.
What’s the point in telling you this? It’s that so many good things come with persistence! So, keep your brushes moving, master the basics and good things will happen! Mark my words. View my work at robertjsimone.com
