The horizontally striped paintings of vertical format which are David Simpson’s special presentation register just as well in miniature as they do in the huge scale we generally associate with his work. These paintings at Cole’s are small, some to the point of miniature. About light-switch size. Using climbing bands of gauzy landscape alternated with repeated bands of dark, smoky color, Simpson manages to convey the idea of the infinitude of nature—that it goes on and on, through periods of storm and of calm, of light and of dark, of burnt-to-cinder drouth to burgeoning fresh green-up. No figures mar his ordered world—we are not to enter his world, we are only to view it. His are the most Western of the current landscapes: baked colors, hazy reaches, striated format, mirage-like reflections, all carry us into a storybook frontier. Even the verticality of his “pure stripes” (no landscape elements) is more hanging blanket (Indian) than paper scroll (Chinese.) “My painting, whether termed landscape or ‘pure painting’ is meant to be contemplative in nature,” says Simpson. To this end he is successful, although his is not a theme that can be carried on endlessly.
––E. M. Polley
