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Francesca Simon

London
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I make paintings. An instinct for geometry and pattern-making, combined with a fascination for three-dimensional effects worked onto the flat plane of the canvas, typify my practice. The harmony of my compositions is governed by an inner symmetry; my use of colour is restrained.

My way into abstraction was through the topography and field shapes of North Yorkshire and, although my work is no longer situated in landscape, surface and what lies beneath continues to hold my interest. In my work the layers of gesso which obliterate the original painting are subsequently rubbed back to reveal what is below; the past is teased back to the present, a painted palimpsest. 

I have recently been making a series of ‘secular’ hinged triptychs, a contemporary take on an essentially Christian devotional object. The repetitive pattern-making typical of Islamic art is of equal importance to me though and my triptychs owe as much to visits to the Alhambra, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, as anything else. 

 

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