David Smith

These paintings depict natural forms and spaces on solid, wood panels. They use the chemical qualities of oil washes to disrupt, dissolve or decay the image surface. The light, space and forms are shifting, living and dying, displaying a fragile and temporary nature. The dynamic of the work has emerged from travelling back and forth between Ireland and Hong Kong, where I lived for over 11 years.
As nature is further and further hemmed in, dominated and compromised by population, material culture and environmental degradation, this work seeks to create an internal sanctuary, that reflects this pressure as well as a hope for a new sublime. Influenced by zen, ink painting, abstraction and photography, they play with the mysterious and the elemental.

Could you tell us a little more about your background, and how did you begin creating art?

I’m from County Mayo in the west of Ireland. I grew up with art and music in our home. I have always drawn and painted since young and also learned guitar from my father. I studied fine art at a number of colleges and later moved to Hong Kong where I lived for 11 years. I have always looked at landscape as inspiration for painting, and the contrasting environments and visual histories of Ireland and Hong Kong has proven a rich source to draw from for making images. 

What does your art aim to say to the viewers? 

I am interested in the essential elements of light, time, decay and the transience of experience. I always hope to create a feeling of a space that isn’t fixed, but is living and dying before our eyes. Moving, shifting and in flux.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your daily routine when working?

I very often work on small and medium scale wooden panels. I tend to work exclusively on wood for its solid and resistant properties. I don’t like the flex and textured surface of canvas, preferring a more solid surface that resists and pushes back. The images I make come from a variety of sources but are heavily influenced from where I have been and lived. There is a strong influence of ink painting, photography and minimalism inherent in the paintings. They also draw on abstraction and process led work. I tend to work on decaying the image surface, aiming for a shifting or decaying surface that pulls at the images physical integrity. Something forms, clarifies and at the same time it is decaying away. For other projects, I also work in music, photography and film. These of course seep into the paintings and make for a varied creative work routine.

What’s the essential element in your art?

A contradictory feeling of large space and distance, but intimate also. A large panorama of landscape and distance is all experienced in your eyes and brain. A feeling of holding that expansiveness inside. An interior landscape perhaps. Nothing is fixed and everything is in motion

In your opinion, what role does the artist have in society? 

Artists of all forms and disciplines are the reflection of humanity’s spirit, curiosity and drive. Creation is as necessary as breathing. 

Website: www.davidsmith-studio.com