Simon Gunning was born into a middle class family in Sydney, Australia, where he experienced an ideal childhood by the water with nature. When he was seven years old, his grandmother gave him a book on Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of horses and soldiers. Through those drawings Gunning learned to see nature as art.

Dunning attended the Victorian College of Art in Melbourne. During his third year there, artist David Hockney was a guest lecturer and suggested he apply for a reciprocal post-graduate painting scholarship at the Royal Academy of Art in London. Gunning was accepted but never made it there because, on his way to London, he stopped in New Orleans--the town that became his destiny and home.

A binding love for the people, the character and the nature of the Gulf South has been a constant inspiration and the main focus of Gunning's paintings and drawings. Like many other artists, he feels this unique corner of our fragile world needs constant nurturing with the empathy of our being.

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