Talking With Painters

With his work currently hanging in Flinders Lane Gallery alongside other leading emerging artists, Michael Simms' career has taken a leap since he completed his classical training at Sydney's Julian Ashton Art School in 2014. In the last 12 months alone he has won three art prizes; the Cambridge Studio Gallery portrait prize, the Cliftons Sydney Art prize and the Cliftons People's choice award.  He was finalist in seven others including the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture and the Percival Tucker Portrait Prize, has exhibited in two solo exhibitions and has been in a number of group shows. But his path forward has not always been as clear as it is today and he talks openly about the uncertainty he experienced after leaving university when he struggled to find direction.  An unexpected 21st birthday present and advice he received from a life drawing teacher led him to enrol at Julian Ashton Art School where he became 'addicted' to drawing and painting and was awarded a scholarship. In our conversation he als