SEA, SKY, AND SERENISSIMA
Paintings By Connie Simmons
November 7 – 22, 2024
Weekdays 10am - 5pm
I have loved the work of Connie Simmons for many years, and it is with great personal satisfaction that we present this exhibition devoted to her work. Her ethereal visions of the effects of light on sea and sky are born from experience and observation and expressed through techniques drawn from the painters and watercolorists that she has studied and championed. Foremost of these are Francesco Guardi and J. M. W. Turner, whose work has been to her both instructive and inspirational.
This exhibition reflects the artist’s fascination with the vast, powerful, and thrilling effects and sensations of light, color, and movement observed in the sea, the sky, and in Venice—La Serenissima herself. Simmons’ paintings capture a wide range of atmospheric effects and weather across the seasons, from dawn through dusk into darkness.
Different paint surfaces and materials are employed—linen, board, metal, and paper—and a range of media—from oil to watercolor—to explore the extraordinary variety and interplay of light, color, and contrast.
Ian Warrell, formerly Curator 18th & 19th Century British Art, Tate Britain, has written of the artist:
“From Constable’s celebrated cloud studies to the fluctuating light pervading Turner’s evocations of Venice, the superficial idea that the resulting works preserve a kind of ‘snap-shot’ impression proves to be misleading. So often, what appears spontaneous arises from a much slower process of assimilation of a motif. This is also true of Connie Simmons' paintings, where time is suspended and condensed, distilling hours of looking, photographing, sketching and contemplation. What we see is unique to Connie’s own vision of the places she has visited, each recreated so vividly and atmospherically.”
About the Artist
An Emmy-award winning producer, director, and editor of art programs for television, including the PBS series Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop, Simmons began her career in New York City as an entertainment lawyer, working with producers and film companies in private practice and later as vice president at Columbia Tri Star. She then was part of the management team that launched the cable channel The Food Network in 1993, where she served as its Executive Vice President, before starting her own production company and concentrating on painting.
Connie first painted with her grandmother Altha Simmons in Texas and continued to paint while pursuing these other career paths. She studied at the University of Texas at Austin, Art Students League in New York City, at Silvermine Art Guild in New Canaan, CT, and with contemporary artists David Dunlop and Tony Smibert. Connie lives in New York City with her husband Jim Krugman.
