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NANCY SIMONDS

Color Columns with Magenta
Tall Tetris Type Blues and Orange Stack
Tall Tetris Type
Triangle Stack
Sea Foam Blues Greens
Color Column Array IV Blue Orange
Columned Color Array
Cropped Ovoids
Sea Stack II
Color Columns
Sea Stack I
Sinuous Spring Blues
Sea Foam Blue Grays
Streaming Blues
All Blues
Color Columns in Blue
Demi Lune II
13ArcPairingsBlues_42Wx21Winches_Collage
Demi Lune I
5ArcPairingsII_22x22inchess_CollagedGoua
Arc Sweep XIV
Harbor Currents
Langorous Blues
Waters Edge
Shore Wauwinet
Marigold Surge

ABSTRACT

 

Nancy Simonds, a graduate of the school of the Museum of Fine Arts and Smith College, summers in Sconset and maintains a studio in the South End of Boston where she is a regular participant in the well known South End Open Studios events. But, it is Nantucket and its tranquil environs that imbue the intimate serenity so characteristic of Simond's work.

 

In her BLOCK STACK series, Simonds stacks and piles simple shapes, ultimately creating visual relationships which build the larger rhythms. Each work is paired down to its essentials and each becomes a complete world of its own. The artist's aim is to "generate visual places; points of departure for states of serenity and contemplation". These stack paintings spring from Simonds' long interest in building materials and architectural elements that include bricks, concrete blocks, window openings, and doorways. Building by increments to larger, dynamic wholes, is at the heart of Simonds' work.

 

Simonds takes a different path with her OVOID series, enjoying a play of organic shapes against the white of the background that create tension as the ovals touch or separate in varying degrees. These images reflect velvety textures reminding the viewer of moss covered earth, matched with disparate shapes, sizes and textures all coexisting in nature.

Working in gouache paint on Reeves printmaking paper, Simonds achieves a translucency and depth of color as she blots and dabs myriads of hues to create her complex and delicate surfaces. It is the thrill of discovery in each new piece that keeps her exploring in the studio.

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