Ken Smith

Recently, Smith has become more attuned to the passage of time and the ever-changing phenomena within the landscape, where everything is in a state of flux. By manipulating line, shape, texture, composition, tone, and colour, Smith encapsulates the essence of time in his art. It is the last and most inexplicable of these elements – colour – that now seems to be most associated with the transience of time.

The elegance and apparent ease of Smith’s paintings belies the thought and extensive process that goes into them. For Smith is a craftsman of the highest order; the landscape is his subject but his object is to translate what he sees into a self-contained system of complementary colours, tones and lines. The landscape is, as he points out, like a new picture every day. It is these minute variations in light and atmosphere that engage him on a deep level, and which he endeavours to describe within his work. A by-product of this approach is that his paintings have an aching stillness about them.
Simon Gregg, Director Gippsland Art Gallery

'Smith’s compositions draw the eye away from the immediate, away from the here and now, and out toward what lies beyond, to the activities and conditions taking place ‘over there’ – a singular streak of cirrus cloud, a distant sheet of dark grey rain, the slow passage of a container ship, smoke rising from a distant landmark. Everything is rendered with equal clarity, all crystalline and sharply focused. Bright, white light casts strong, well-defined shadows and accentuates the vivid saturation of things. Sky and sea form within calm swathes of tonal gradation, shifting through a spectrum of blues, pinks or greys; darker at the horizon, hazy through the fog, weedy and green nearer the shore, undiluted and pure at the midday zenith.

With an empirical approach to colour selection reflecting a deep understanding of the subtle nuances of atmosphere and perception, Smith allows sky and sea to converge in an orchestration of hues. From the graduated blues of distant horizons to the luminous interplay of light and water, each composition captures the fleeting beauty of nature's palette. As we navigate our way through his evocative compositions, we are reminded of the boundless wonder that lies beyond the horizon and of the enduring power of art to capture an essence of our world in all its vivid complexity.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Phe Luxford 2024