The Happy Mad

The Happy Mad explores the strange and fertile ground from which ideas grow.

Like seedlings pushing through dark earth, Simon de Groot’s paintings emerge from a foundation of filth, decay and discarded fragments, transforming the overlooked and unwanted into something vivid and alive.

Golden spirals, twisting forms and bursts of colour develop from this darkness, growing from small beginnings into increasingly complex worlds. Each painting becomes another canopy of canvas, branching outward into new ideas and possibilities.

Part growth, part decay and entirely alive with colour, The Happy Mad is a visual journey through the fertile imagination of Simon de Groot, where even the darkest soil can produce something extraordinary.