Meet Simon Zekaria

About Simon Zekaria

Simon Zekaria belongs to a quiet but persistent tradition in painting — the observational painter, working from the world as it is, alert to the way light falls on a single afternoon. He paints in oil, quickly and instinctively, with a limited palette and an Impressionist’s fascination for light and shadow. The aim is not to record but to catch — to capture a person, an object or a place at a particular moment in time, and then to stop.

For Simon, the pleasure of painting is as much in the process as in the result. It is about finding the subject and then letting the essence of a scene’s mood or feeling come up to meet you. His intention, in his own words, is to say just enough. The paintings that follow read at a distance as reality — solid forms, a sense of place, a moment recognisable to anyone who has stood in a kitchen with the afternoon coming through the window — but reveal themselves close up as a careful conversation of painterly marks.

That surface is part of the appeal. Simon enjoys the surface itself — broken colour set against textured brushwork, the play between lean and fat paint, a thick stroke laid down beside a thin wash. He works quickly so the painting feels alive on the panel, not laboured. The viewer is left, agreeably, with two things at once: the scene, and the trace of the painter who made it.

Simon has earned several art awards over the course of his career and has exhibited in numerous shows, including with the Chelsea Art Society and at the Gallery at Green and Stone. His work is held in private collections.

The work in the show

Harvest Study on Pantry Table (2026). Oil on board, 30 × 40 cm, framed. A small study that sits firmly within Simon’s stated practice — produce on a pantry table, caught in a moment of light. The kind of painting that quietly rewards close attention: at three paces a still life, at three inches a tissue of considered marks.

Where to see the work

Harvest Study on Pantry Table is in Eye Feast 2026 at Regent’s Park Gallery, 17 Princess Road, London NW1 8JR, from 5 June to 27 June 2026. Available to view in the gallery during the show, or to browse and buy via the online shop.