Jeffrey Simmons : Watercolors

Jeffrey Simmons is a visual artist from Seattle, Washington, USA. In his Watercolors series, he painted delicate, precise and soft-edged rings of concentric circles that are arranged either vertically or in elaborate compositions of layered ellipses. An almost mechanical perfection of shape and tone gives way to color and light that radiates softly and intimately.

Above – Untitled watercolor painting, detail.  July 4, 2013.

“The symmetrical image reminds us of the patterns we see in the natural world around us: in our faces, in our bodies, in leaves, in flowers, in atoms, in galaxies. Our tendency to seek such patterns in the visual world is indivisible from our basic desire to break down the apparent complexities of the world around us, to bring ourselves a closer understanding of the nature of our existence.” – Jeffrey Simmons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Offset Echo IV 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches

Offset Echo III (detail), July 8, 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches. The forms are created by layering offset, lightly pigmented circles. The top shape is made of approximately fifty increasingly dark layers of gray, the bottom forty.

 

Separator I 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches. / Offset Variation II 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Echo Variation I 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches. / Gravity Well VI 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.5 x 10 inches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gravity Well IV 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches. / Gravity Well III 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gravity Well II 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches. / Gravity Well 2013. Watercolor on paper, 14.25 x 10 inches.

Chromatic Resonator VI 2013, watercolor on paper, 15 x 10.5 inches.

New Resonator III 2013. Watercolor on paper, 15 x 10.5 inches. “I documented the early stages of this painting in a video here, and in photographs here (day one), here (two days later), and here (two days after that). It has been sitting unfinished in my flat file ever since, but, having made a few adjustments, I’m reasonably happy with the way it looks now.”

Chromatic Resonator IV (detail) 2012. Watercolor on paper, 15 x 10.5 inches. Eli Ridgway Gallery, San Francisco, California.

Photos and drawings © Jeffrey Simmons