Sian Smith

Sian Smith was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1991. She lives and works in Glasgow.

Smith earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Scotland and later her Master of Fine Arts at the New York Academy of Art in 2018. Working on several films, initially with the director Lynne Ramasay, the artist studied the effect of light on objects, creating a mood in a small space and the importance of small details. It is this experience that Smith credits greatly to forming her artistic practice. More recently Smith worked with the director Wes Anderson creating paintings for the set of The French Dispatch.

In 2017, Smith began working on unstretched, unprimed chiffon. Finding traditional canvas too definite, she prefers the fluidity the chiffon provides. The paintings, in fact, change as the chiffon moves and the light shifts. Smith feels the movement in the paintings reflects the rolling light and surroundings of her native Scotland.

Light is essentially the subject of Smith’s paintings, more specifically natural light. Painting only the light present in the image and leaving empty spaces occupied by physical objects, such as trees in a forest, the subjects seem to be inside the fabric rather than on top of it. The images themselves are created by several thin layers of oil paint applied with firm brushes.

For Smith, her artwork is a reflection of her natural surroundings:  the quiet spaces of her works hold the same feelings as the solitude of the Scottish countryside. It is Smith’s desire that her paintings lead us beyond daily life and back into nature with places of respite and contemplation.

Website www.siansmithart.co.uk