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ARTIST: JULIE SIMMONDS
“Across the bay” is one of a series of lino prints, mono-prints and collagraph prints made in response to the coastline of my childhood in Dorset and they explore the personal and historical context of this special place. I enjoy playing with the contrasts found in combining abstract flatness against more complex form, strong mark-making against collaged surfaces and the interplay between vivid and muted colours. I consciously distort the referential in order to offer a personal and alternative interpretation.
COMPOSER: TIM JOHNSTON
Age 16 – The Sir William Borlase‘s Grammar School
I love how Julie Simmond’s painting uses the strong lines of an ink print alongside blocks of colour to create a slightly hazy ambiguity. My aim with the piece was to reflect the sea as it’s portrayed in the painting. The piece opens with a low rumble in the cellos, and they provide a consistent pulse throughout the opening sections, like small ripples pitted against the crashing of larger waves formed by the rest of the orchestra. This tranquility is a contrast to the second section, which features a much more flowing sound, with slow melodies floating on the top of busy string writing, similar to the way you can imagine the boat in the picture bobbing up and down over the ripples in the sea.