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Statement
BIOGRAPHY
Susan Smith was born in the U.S on 25 October 1951. She spent the next 35 years experiencing and exploring a wide range of cultural & physical Californian landscapes, from the rural desert, to mountains and seashores, from inner city multiculturalism to spiritually-minded communities. She studied art and was successful in exhibiting her work until her life took her in diverse directions including working as a counsellor & facilitator. After living in Guatemala & Honduras she relocated to the U.K. where she worked as an existential psychotherapist. In 2004 she retired to Otter Ferry on the east shore of Loch Fyne in Western Scotland to concentrate on her lifelong passion for painting & creative exploration, bringing a wealth of diverse experience to her work.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
“I am focused on the energy of the creative process of becoming, curious to where it leads and what may be revealed,discovered or left hidden. Chance, seeming mistakes or imperfections are all opportunities and are used and infused, often leading to new areas to explore. Colour, light, and texture emerge in the work, and can seem to take on a life of their own. I work in acrylic, oil, mixed media, and on differing supports from canvas to paper to wood, all according to the spirit of the piece. Most of my pieces are small to medium in size, as this calls forth an intimacy between myself and the viewer as well as a more personal response and engagement.
Living here in Western Scotland I cannot help but be constantly inspired/’breathed into’, by the energy of the earth & sky, cycles of nature, the light & unpolluted darkness. In painting ‘outer’ land & seascapes, or even still lifes, I am not so much interested in replication as is capturing the spirit or essence of a place or object at a particular time. I hope to represent my experience there and the emotions the place begs me to respond with.
Ironically, and as if to compliment outer reality and landscape, some of my work focuses on an ‘inner’ landscape. Here the inspiration comes from an intuition, idea or feeling, or simply an urge to explore the purely abstract leaving behind conventional reality. Here I find a playground of discovery, challenge and exploration that may potentially breakdown boundaries of the known. One of my objectives here is to explore the relationships between myself, the 'spirit of the time' (zeitgeist) and the work itself. Often what is hidden is revealed in a surprising manner.
