Francine Simonin

Francine Simonin, born in 1936 in Lausanne, is a Swiss and Quebec painter, designer and engraver. She lives and works in Montreal and Evian-les-Bains. His work can be linked to the expressionist movement.

 

If Francine Simonin paints and engraves with the same energy and the same graphic exploration, in engraving she has this ability to conjugate and combine different materials and to combine on the same surface several methods such as etching, aquatint, point dries and sticks.
She invests the surface, with a powerful but adjusted gesture. It organizes plans, organizes masses of
colors, applies ink stains and writes fluid, serpentine lines that overlapstill with elements of collages, tinted, cut or torn papers. The practice here is complex and the print is a single edition.

 

And therein lies the greatness and irresistible fascination of Francine Simonin, who beyond technical skills and knowledge largely mastered over decades, reside in her power of expression: for her it is the gesture that exceeds engraving.

 

Since 1958, Francine Simonin has mainly practiced engraving, on wood and copper. In Pully, she attended the workshop of Pierre Cailler, founder of the Engraving Guild. There she met the printer Raymond Meyer, with whom she has since maintained a privileged and fertile, very experimental collaboration.

 

Awards and Recognition
2004 Prize from the Monique and Robert Parizeau Foundation and the Musée national des Beaux Arts du Québec 1996 1st prize (dry point category), 16th Mini print internacional de Cadaqués, Spain
1993 Loto Québec Print Prize, Quebec Print and Paper Drawing Biennial
1992 Thomas More Foundation Prize, Montreal
1990 Prize from the Vaudoise Foundation for the promotion and artistic creation, Lausanne
1986 Prize from the Irène Reymond Foundation, Lausanne
1985 Grand prize of the small format biennial, Lodz, Poland
1983-1982 Artist residency, international city of arts, Paris
1975-1979 Research grant, University of Quebec at Trois Rivières
1970 Ulrico-Hoepli Scholarship, Zurich
1968 Prize of the 1st Swiss Biennale of Engraving, Geneva
1967 Swiss Federal Engraving Exchange, Bern
1966 Alice Bailly Prize, Lausanne and 1966 Kiefer-Hablitzel Scholarship, Bern
1964 Swiss Federal Painting Exchange, Bern