Reflecting Newport Beach

Jennifer K Mahal

Balboa Pavilion stands a shadow guard over the Balboa

Islandbeachcombers in the foreground. The hues of a winter sunset --

lilacs, pinks and blues -- color the scene.

It took artist Steve Simon only five hours to complete the oil

painting. Which is good, since he and the 10 other competitors in the

“City Reflections” art event at the Orange County Fair only had from noon

to 5 p.m. to publicly create a piece of art that would capture the

essence of their representative cities.

“We had the artists painting outside under the shade canopies so that

people coming in could happen upon them, could watch art happen and the

artists could even talk to the people walking by,” Joan Hamill, exhibit

supervisor, said. “They were all beautiful.”

But when the judging was finished, Simon’s beachcombers --

representing Newport Beach -- had a Best in Show ribbon hanging from it.

The ribbon is still hanging from it, only now it’s displayed in the front

of Simon’s Marine Avenue store.

“He understands the heart and soul of the city,”’ said Roberta

Jorgensen, an arts commissioner who voted to have Simon represent Newport

Beach.

The Balboa Island resident should. He’s already published one coffee

table book of local landscapes -- “Newport Beach, California: Celebrating

90 years” -- and is in the middle of writing the copy for a second one,

titled “The Spirit of Newport Beach.”

Art is a long way from the mechanical engineering career Simon pursued

after graduating from Iowa State University. But even while working as an

engineer in Germany, the Chicago native had an inkling that he was on the

wrong path.

“They asked me to do a presentation of this robot’s dexterity. They

wanted to demonstrate it at the Hanover Fair,” Simon said. “So I drew

Elvis wearing sunglasses, and I painstakingly programmed the robot to

pick up the pen and do the same.”

The men in the white lab coats were not amused.

“They looked at each other and said, ‘That won’t do,’ ” Simon said.

“And I realized that I was badly miscast as an engineer at that point.”

Simon went on to get a masters in business administration from the

Institut Superieur de Gestion in Paris, a program that required travel to

Toyko, New York and nine other cities across the world. Upon receiving

his degree, Simon stayed on as a consultant in Paris, living in the

artists quarter of Montmarte.

“It was in Paris that I made the decision that what I really wanted to

do is paint,” the 36-year-old said.

He moved to Cailfornia in 1994 and opened his Newport Beach gallery in

1996.

Painting in the public’s view is nothing new for Simon, who uses the

front area of his shop as a studio.

“I usually start after lunch and give myself until the end of the day

to complete [a piece],” he said.

Beside the local book, Simon has also published “California Through an

Artist’s Eye.” The book, which came out in September, celebrated the

state’s 150th anniversary with a series of paintings and poems. It took

Simon two years to complete.

“The most pleasant surprise was Death Valley,” Simon said. “I was

astounded by the variety in California in terms of landscape.”