Brian “Ray” Simmonds going by the moniker “pher01” has been creating art for the last 15 years, much of it full time. He grew up in San Diego and moved to Colorado for school where he discovered his passion for art at Fort Lewis in Durango and the overall importance of visual art in his life and in on our shared culture as a conversation of not only why we are here, but a reflection of our times we live in. He took some art classes in college which taught him how to think about art, but he is mostly self taught from the spraycan to the brush.
This most recent body of work is a narrative of many of the places that are special to my San Diego experience. All of these offerings are original works that are created on site in a plein air approach. They are rooted in Impressionism, with an illustrative style - gathering the important elements of the painting from lighting to color balance. Half of the fun is painting the landscape, the other half is filling it with the people and colors and animals that inhabit the scene.
This series is special and dear to my heart as it’s created for all ages from children to the elderly. Art shouldn’t be for a niche group of “in the know” people, it’s for everyone. That’s much of why he found street art and mural work to be so special, as it takes the artistic experience outside the museum and gives that experience to the people, the passerby. This series encapsulates the energy of San Diego and the people, much of it based around surf culture and expanding to cycling, running, parks, etc. I sincerely appreciate you being a part of this experience. Every ounce of my energy has gone into creating this body of work that I plan to travel with as a full time artist with his dog sidekick Lola to new places and the special places that this journey will take them to.
San Diego, being the inaugural city, it’s a special moment in time creating this series and I am honored to be witness to this beautiful landscape and its inhabitants. If you’d like to bring a piece of my journey into your home - it means the world to me and helps keep my creative journey going, please contact me on instagram @pher01 with any questions or commission ideas or inserting your family or loved ones into one of the scenes. I hope your day is filled with joy and positivity. Thank you for being here.
- Ray
