SIMON GARDEN | Stilt Walker
Oil on Fresco Panel
64 x 90 cms / 25 ¼ x 35 ½ inches
Signed Simon Garden (on reverse)
Stilt Walker by Simon Garden is a mesmerising exploration of balance and wonder. Garden’s signature dreamlike quality permeates the scene, where a lone figure on stilts reaches skyward beside a lush, fruit-laden tree. The artist’s rich textures and soft, diffused light evoke a sense of magic and mystery, inviting the viewer to step into a world where reality and imagination blur. This poetic composition is a testament to Garden’s skill, making it a prized addition to any contemporary art collection.
In Stilt Walker, Simon Garden invites us into a world suspended between reality and dream.
Garden utilises the interplay of texture, atmosphere, and symbolism, to transform a simple moment into something profound, imbued with wonder. At the heart of the composition stands a tree, its vast, structural trunk anchoring the landscape with quiet authority.
Above, its dense foliage forms an almost celestial canopy, punctuated by glimmers of fruit—tiny bursts of colour that shimmer against the textured darkness.
Garden’s painterly technique lends the bark an almost sculptural presence, its thick impasto reinforcing the tree’s sense of age and endurance. Beneath it, a solitary figure balances on stilts, their arms reaching outward in a moment of excitement. There is something both whimsical and deeply poignant in this pose—a playful defiance of gravity, a yearning to bridge the space between earth and sky. Reduced by the magnitude of the tree, the figure is nonetheless a compelling presence, suggesting a quiet determination to rise beyond earthly constraints.
Garden’s palette is rich yet restrained, layering misty blues, deep umbers, and softened golds to create an atmosphere that feels timeless—both grounded in reality and lifted from the pages of a half-remembered fable. In the distance, the faint outline of a house lingers on the horizon, its softened edges reinforcing the painting’s dreamlike quality.
With Stilt Walker, Simon Garden conjures a sensation, a quiet meditation on the beauty of existing within nature’s embrace. It is a painting that rewards careful contemplation, offering new depths with each viewing.
