Artist Statement

Steph Smith is regular exhibitor in group, solo and juried exhibitions. Her work was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2019 and again in 2020. Most recently all six of her submitted works were selected for the prestigious ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in 2023. She regularly shows work at art fairs and in group exhibitions, most recently ‘The Space Between’ at the Graham Hunter Gallery on Baker Street. She is represented in the UK by Gala Fine Art and exhibited with them at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park in 2022. Steph’s recent solo exhibition ‘Reflections’ at the Chelsea Waterside AtrSpace explored themes in her work that have their origin in her childhood spent in the North of England with its dramatic landscapes, forests and expansive waterways.

Steph is an observer of her everyday surroundings, noticing the extraordinary in the mundane, such as fairy lights festooning at tree on a city roadside, balloons caught in branches in a park, a bright pink tree amidst an otherwise dark woodland. She seeks to capture the magic of the ephemeral and celebrate the mysteries of the natural world. Blossom or snow floating on the air, curious weather conditions, the ethereal light cast by streetlights or the moon reflecting on water, that fleeting moment just before nightfall when the light transforms the landscape with a strange otherworldliness.

Process is important in Steph’s work. She works from photos, drawings and memory, rather than en plein air. Steph applies the paint in a variety of consistencies, from thin washes to thicker impasto, fully exploiting the translucent qualities of the oil paint. Many layers are applied scraped away and reapplying until a certain mood develops. This process allows each painting to emerge as an emotional response to the experience of a landscape, rather than a visual representation of it.