Endless hours of concentrated study and a remarkable talent that is deeply rooted in family history have combined to endow local portrait painter Simon Bland with the ability to convey the story of his subjects with subtlety and depth.

The charming Cambridge-educated Englishman who turned away from the arts and toward engineering when he was very young, turned back to creative endeavor four years ago.

"I was honored and excited to be invited to attend Churchill College at Cambridge," Bland explained. "My math and physics scores were extremely high, and, although I loved to paint and had been doing so since I was little, it didn't seem a serious pursuit, and engineering was very seductive."

Simon believed that engineering offered him exciting opportunities to create truly innovative things, but, after many years at Price Waterhouse in both London an in Northern Virginia and in the telecommunications industry, he realized that many of today's most brilliant engineers labor for a lifetime to create a miniscule element in something much larger. He wanted to be responsible for the concept, the design and the product in its entirety.

And, he wanted to tell stories, stories of individuals, of their emotions and of their lives. Whether those individuals were people or animals, Simon hoped he could capture and preserve on canvas the emotional quality of each life.

"A painting must tell a story," he emphasizes. "Everyone has boxes of photographs that capture a moment, but a painting, that's another thing altogether. A painting tells a story, and a good painting can tell that story from many perspectives."

"One hundred and fifty years ago, many of the paintings that hung in a person's home were connected to that family, whether they were of children, relatives, pets or the house itself. Today, we very much want to capture a record of our lives….of our children at different stages of development…..of our pets before they leave us and of specific moments in time that represent our pleasures and pastimes."

According to Simon, although this instinct to capture our lives on canvas is still very much alive, finding an artist to help us do so has become much more difficult.

"It's clear that more and more people purchase art of all kinds," he says. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if some of the paintings on their walls were highly personal reflections of the lives lived within them."

So, with the desire to paint still buried deep within him, Simon began to sketch his own pets several years after he and his wife, Kate, were married in 1995.

"I had no idea he was so talented," she said. "It was if he'd been hiding a great secret."

With Kate's encouragement and a determination to pursue art seriously, Simon stopped wishing the paintings he saw in galleries were his and set to work. He studied with Karyn Hume in Manassas and at the Loudoun Academy of Art where instructor Stilson Green encouraged him in his pursuit.

"I had tremendous teachers, unparalleled encouragement and good friends like the Clarks at Wylie Wagg and Lee and Irena Phillips at The Doggie Wash in Purcellville. Without all of these, I might have lost heart," he explains.

To date, Simon has 120 portraits in his delightful portfolio, a three-month wait for new commissions and the confidence that only comes with success in an endeavor an individual truly loves.

It's easy to see why Simon's portraits are in such demand.

From the most majestic glowering bull, to the teenager and his canine companion to dogs and cats in all their moods and moments, Bland has become a portrait painter of considerable note in Northern Virginia and, increasingly, in areas far and wide.

Clearly, he applies his mathematical genius to all his commissioned work. The paintings leave an immediate impression of both mood and matter, and the personalities of his subjects are captured kindly and with grace for all time.

"My grandfather was a self-taught artist who always carried a sketch pad when we went on walks when I was little," Simon remembers. "I learned so much from him and from my parents that, although my father is somewhat stunned that I've left the business world to be an artist, I know he understands how much I love what I'm doing now."

Painting is a very intellectual pursuit for Simon, a creative process that is every bit as demanding as any executive position. He spends days envisioning a commission after his research is complete, and he will not put brush to canvas until he has a picture in his mind of what he intends to create.

"I only allow myself to paint loosely when I'm working for myself," he says smiling. "I remember when I was very, very young we had a wonderful Windsor & Newton watercolor set in a big wooden box. My mother let us paint at the kitchen table. I believe the origin of my love of painting rests firmly on those early days and on my grandfather's patience as he showed me how to sketch."

Simon obviously loves his clients.

"My clients are so kind," he says. "They give me permission to do my very best work and we collaborate closely on the emotional context they hope I'll create for the subject. One of my largest commissions was of a woman who was terminally ill and wanted to leave a painting of her with her animals for her family. It was truly memorable work, and I was honored to have her trust. We created a vocabulary for the work that has real meaning, and the resulting painting conveyed exactly what she wished her family to know."

When asked if he enjoys living in Northern Virginia, Simon does not hesitate to say it's the first place he's ever lived where he feels like he belongs.

"It's a beautiful, timeless place where I've found my life's work."

Although he is very busy, Simon hopes to be commissioned to paint a mounted rider going cross-country.

"I recently received a very important commission to paint a Hunt scene, and I'm very excited about the work, but, honestly, I love every commission."

To commission a Simon Bland portrait, please contact him at his Lovettsville studio: 540 822 3080 or visit his website at: www.portraitsbysimonbland.com. Remember, you must place your commissions for end-of-the-year holidays by the previous August.