Elisabeth Smith
Houston, TX
Artist's Website
Artist's Statement:
The act of painting reveals as many challenges, discoveries and mysteries as I could ever ask for. It is within this process of making art that I find meaning and connection to life, myself and to the source of my creativity. My paintings suggest organic formations that seem familiar but remain elusive. It is within this ambiguity that I engage the viewer through harmonic color relationships, form and striking contrasts. I apply multiple layers of color and texture, which result in a quality of depth and complexity that encourages the viewer to contemplate the painting as a multi-dimensional atmosphere radiating a source of warmth and light. My paintings are environments that I invite the viewer into, to explore and investigate further.
They evolve creatively at the same time as the execution of them. I rarely plan a series beyond initially writing about it and making sketches that I put away until a series is finished. They begin with under-paintings of acrylic that I trowel, brush, knife or towel on. This is a subconscious stage that I execute quickly. Then, I begin applying layers of oil paint to coax the essence of the painting, the light and the warmth out. There is always a push and pull between the intuitive and the considered in painting, and I employ each to create the final piece. At some point I stop when I think the painting is being what it wants to be, when its ready to go out into the world to be interpreted as it will, free of my original intent.
I`m interested in “systems” that reference each other. Water systems on a landscape look like the circulatory or nervous system in the body. My paintings reference all of these systems and nudge the viewer into seeing the essence of themselves and all life as being connected in reality and within the paintings. I explore the landscapes inside and outside of me and find that they are very much the same.
Artist's Bio:
Elisabeth Smith`s paintings have been exhibited in many solo and group shows in Texas including Lawndale Art Center and Diverse Works Art Space. Her work is in public and corporate collections, including Baird, Kurtz & Dobson of Houston, Texas. She is an award-winning artist that has been living and working in Houston since 1984. She works in oil on birch panel and has exhibited assemblage works as well.
Elisabeth Smith was born in Austin, Texas, in 1961 and received an Applied Arts Degree from the Art Institute of Houston in 1986.
