Utah-based artist Mare Simmons creates expressive, color-filled paintings that reflect her love of mountains and nature, botanicals, marine life, folk art, and more.
A self-described visual storyteller and “mess maker,” Mare’s vibrant abstracts are simultaneously well-balanced and delightfully dynamic. Each one’s shifting colors and interwoven motifs offer myriad paths to explore and peruse—making repeat viewings unique and fascinating no matter how many times you’ve seen them before.
So let’s take a look, shall we? :)
In the painting below, Mare took inspiration from a map of the Seine river winding through Paris—and of course, she put her own colorful spin on it!
She depicted its curving route in deep, sapphire hues, with jewel-like city blocks below and pink and orange flowers springing up above the farmlands to the north. The end result is stunning. . . and you can almost feel the entire city growing, moving, and dancing to a rhythm all it’s own!
Another frequent source of inspiration for Mare are her gorgeous Utah mountain ranges, with their snow-capped peaks and surrounding forests.
The mountains above, with their dark blue shadows, and orange and yellow highlights (as well as the Southwestern-style pattern in the plains below them) may indicated a mountain range further from her home state. . . However, I picked this painting to feature because Mare indicated in her Instagram account that she was exploring with more earth-tones in this piece, and I think it’s a resounding success!
Last but not least, Mountain Honey below is a dazzling abstract in cool blues and purples (with a swath of warm gold in the center) that conveys a variety of images.
Mountains and forests; honeycombs and sunshine; nightfall and wildlife—it all merges together into a fantastical woodland tapestry that begs to be studied at length.
If you’d like to see more of Mare Simmon’s paintings, along with her current works-in-progress and the occasional snapshots from her studio and exhibits, make sure to check out her Instagram account today!
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