Apr 9, 2013 | painting
Frothy clouds and hazy distances make for simple scenes of awe in Samantha Keely Smith’s paintings. They’re landscapes taken to a new level – sparkling, glowing and fading – shining enigmas that show more of what we all hope heaven looks like than anything we could ever dream of seeing on this earth. The gods and elements interact without people to mess things up – water, nature and light converging into one scene of wonder.
Land combines with water in “Shift” – a wave of cloud crests in the sunlight above blue sand dunes and before misty air that shines in warm effervescence. Below the breaking wave you can see into the distant blue, to what looks like a glowing forest with clouds instead of leaves. Between two of the center trees shines a white spot of light, like a patronus spell being cast in the distance, or the center seed from which all this beauty has sprung.
Shift
oil, enamel, shellac on canvas
60″ x 72 “
2012
The waves get speckled orange in “Progeny” – light clouds of paint breaking and bursting in the foreground before a shimmering blue-green haze. “Mutiny” substantiates the water more, almost letting it fill up the canvas and submerging us below its depths, but not without a look into the distance at the land that might be there. Again with a breaking wave as the focus, this one glows bright white, splashing up with spots of pink and shades of orange. “Gathering” shows the calmer scene of a watery mountainside that leads off into the light.
Progeny
oil, enamel, and shellac on canvas
48″ x 78″
2013
Samantha Keely Smith was born in England but moved to the US as a child, and now lives and works in New York. Her work has been shown all over New York City and in Arkansas as well. In 2011, her solo exhibition on Madison Avenue was featured as an Editor’s Pick on ArtInfo, who wrote that her works, “play at the edge of abstraction, blurring between light-filled fields and non-objective compositions.”
Samantha’s artist statement reads:
“Smith’s artwork represents a striving to reconcile the inner world of instinct and the tidal sweep of our emotional life, with an external world that is both beautiful and hostile in its natural grandeur. She attempts to map the place where these worlds intersect.
The translucent layers of paint, contrasting soft ethereal brushwork and harder edged sweeping gestures, echo this divergence and depict a timeless place that hovers between dream and reality in a way that is simultaneously alluring and menacing. The work exhibits the struggle between and among the variety of human impulses: impulses that are as necessary as they are contradictory, and which therefore constantly undermine our psychic and social coherence even as they endow us with vitality, soul, and life. “
Mutiny
oil, enamel, shellac on canvas
60″ x 78 “
2012
Gathering
oil, enamel, and shellac on canvas
50″ x 72″
2013
For more of Samantha Keely Smith’s work check out her website and her Tumblr.
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Jul 31, 2013 | news, painting
Iris Grace is one incredible 3-year-old. Well, technically she’s three and a half. It’s difficult for her to interact with others because she has autism, which keeps her from speaking, but she’s able to express herself through art and movement. One of her favorite things to do is paint, and the works she creates could fit right in at a gallery featuring interpretations of Monet’s Water Lilies.
Sometimes her colors get chaotic, but in every painting there’s always an overwhelming sense of balance and calm. Bright colors in watercolor and acrylic splash to fill up each canvas, and even though the works would technically be considered abstract, each feels more like a landscape, or rather a place – an abstract place where things are simple, beautiful and bright.
Her mother writes:
“Iris loves nature, water, flowers, trees, wind, books, pictures, dancing on tip toes and always carries something in her left hand.”
“Blue Water”
“Underwater frog”
“Music at Sunrise”
Iris’ parents have been sharing her paintings online, raising awareness for autism and the National Autistic Society and the Autism Research Trust. Now Iris’ talent has been featured in every major UK newspaper, along with most online news resources in the US. They’ve also begun selling Iris’ originals and prints to raise funds for her treatment. From August 18th – August 29th they’ll be auctioning off her piece, “Follow the Fleet,” by email bids.
Even though everyday things are more difficult, Iris has a lasting attention span when it comes to painting, spending around two hours on each piece. When she’s in the mood to paint, she lets her parents know by pointing at her mug and brush sitting near the sink. She points to the colors she wants to use from the paints in the cupboard, and they mix the paints with water for her. She tests them out, taking them back for remixing if they’re not the right consistency. She’s even starting making her own colors, dipping her brush in multiple mugs before bringing the color to the paper.
Iris flicks and dabs the paint, using different rollers, sponges and brushes to get the effects she’s looking for. Since she can’t speak, her parents name the paintings for her, using their content or Iris’ mood as a guide.
“She used to be consumed by books, eye contact was a rare occurrence, she didn’t want to or know how to play with us, showed obsessive behaviours, got desperately distressed when we took her near any other children and her sleep patterns were all over the place,” her mom Arabella writes on her website, “She now rides on my back in fits of laughter, squealing with delight, plays, communicates by creating her own signs and her sleeping is much better.”
“Rolling Balls”
“Monsoon”
All images and information from Iris’ website.
For more from Iris, find her on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
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Oct 10, 2013 | street art
Usually when I use “meet” in a things worth post title, it’s because the post is an interview and I like to feel like I’m introducing the people who were nice enough to answer my questions. But this one’s about me and a crazy goal I have to get everyone, everywhere talking about art. That’s also the reason why the posts here have been so nonexistent for the past few weeks.
I’ve been documenting San Francisco’s public art since August in a project I call WanderArt — something that will eventually grow into an art map, detailing every public artwork, gallery, and business that features the work of local artists on their walls. Basically, it’s a location-oriented database of art in the public space, and it’ll track our changing opinions of it — something that’s now possible thanks to social technology that can lead people to every artwork outside at any given time.
There is a lot of public art in SF, and I’ve barely even started.
But I have to document all of it because this art is so important; it belongs to all of us and could brighten any one’s day at any given time if they just stopped and looked. Which is why you’ll only be able to comment or vote on works in the database if you’ve ‘checked-in’ to the work’s location. You have to be standing right in front of it, so that every comment you see is from someone who was actually there, creating a physical (but not creepy) connection between people who have shared the experience of considering the work before them.
The photos in each database entry will be shown in order according to the number of votes they have (yay democracy!), and to balance the scales, you’ll only be able to vote on these photos while you’re online, or not checked-in — because you can’t really judge how well the photos give you a sense of an artwork when it’s right there in front of you.
Basically, I just want people to see the art around them — the works they pass everyday, and I want them to be able to find more right around the corner if they ever felt the urge. Because it’s beautiful and it’s free to see.
Everything I’ve ever written, especially here on this blog, has gradually led me to this idea, and I could not be more determined to make it happen. I’m starting in San Francisco, and it’s turned out to be the perfect place because everything is just so freaking scenic all the time. Want to join? Email me to get started wandering in the Bay Area or start your town’s art documentation movement.
If you’re a fan of public or street art, please do any (or all!) of the following:
Check out the website // Like the Facebook page // Follow WanderArt on Twitter // Follow our Tumblr journal
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