Constance Moore Simon
My current paintings grew out of my attraction to geometric patterns from many world traditions such as Islamic tile patterns, Italian floor tiles, ancient Roman mosaics, and American 1960's Op paintings.
Each of my paintings is based on a grid structure which I find to be an appealing matrix upon which to play with color relationships, light, shadow, patterns, and geometric volumes. The grid serves as a unifying starting theme with potential for endless, multiplicative variation.
Many years of painting and drawing from direct observation of the physical world have given me a vocabulary of space, form and light to abstract into the grid structure. My paintings generally do have a response to the visual world as a starting point.
I have always been drawn to the repetitive, geometric forms and sparkly surfaces of crystal formations. I particularly enjoy amethyst crystals and own some large ones. This painting is a playful abstraction of the geometric volumes, lavender colors, and play of light that attract me in my amethyst crystals. I have depicted my long-standing love of the color purple and of these appealing geometric solids found in nature.