En ecoutant Scarlatti

About En ecoutant Scarlatti

Vertical composition on paper with a canary yellow ground over which bristle brushed lines are cross hatched in black. Layered over these central marks is a central collaged strip of paper highlighted in ultra marine blue and grey topped by a tache of white paint. This is balanced by a horizontal strip in white and grey at the foot of the composition held down by another white swipe of white acrylic. A small horizontal collaged rectangle at the upper left keeps the eye moving upwards in the picture plane.

Titled "Listening to Scarlatti" the piece may certainly be a response to the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, an Italian composer and contemporary of Bach and Handel. Scarlatti spent much of his life at the service of the Portugese and Spanish royalty. He taught music to the Princess Maria Barbara future Queen of Spain. Unique to the work of this famous musician was the influence of Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) folk music.

Francine Simonin has worked extensively on paper -- printmaking and collage -- but also canvas.

Simonin has won numerous awards and distinctions, including the Prix de la première Biennale Suisse Engraving in Geneva (1968), the Prix Loto-Québec in Montréal (1981), the Prix Irène Reymond (1986), the Prize of the Print at the Biennale of Drawing, Printmaking and Paper in Alma (1993), as well as the first prize of the 16th International of the Miniature Print of Cadaques in Spain (1996). In October 2004, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Fondation Monique and Robert Parizeau presented her with an award recognizing her exceptional contribution to the history of printmaking in Quèbec. The works of Francine Simonin are to be found in the collections of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, the Geneva Museum, the National Library of Canada (Ottawa), the Council of Europe Art Bank Arts of Canada (Ottawa) as well as several private collections around the world.