Artist statement

Abbie Smith is a practicing artist exploring themes of landscape, linked to memory, childhood, gender and perception.

 The work develops through first-hand drawing, from photographs, and memories of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire (historically a collection of mining towns surrounded by an expansive forest). These are depicted through the lens of stereotypical representations of forest scenes, such as theatre backdrops, cartoons, or children’s book illustrations, in the form of paintings and sculpture.

 The intention is to present these forests simultaneously as mythical, magical, eerie places where anything could happen, good or bad, similar to the effect of children’s book narratives, such as the Brothers Grimm folk tales. The work explores this by paintings being on block coloured fabric leaving some of the fabric to show through, or by using an unnatural colour palette. For example, in the work Millennial Pink, (Feb 2020), the unpainted parts of the image create a peculiar horizon line.

Earlier work focused on using industrially printed fabrics with very little paint mark making. Work then shifted to practicing more painterly techniques so this meant painting in most of the scene, such as Aboribus, (Oct 2019). Current pieces combine this to utilise the effect of having a block colour or abstracted background, with more concentrated and considered elements of painting, as seen in Torment, (Jan 2020). Fabric now used, is a combination of canvas, pre-dyed linens and cotton and naturally hand dyed fabrics with resources such as turmeric, avocado skins and pits, leaves and other found material.  

The aim is to contrast the sweet, girly or kitsch style representations and colours with memories of personal childhood relating to family, place, relationships, past trauma, and the nature and environment I grew up in, (picturesque, untouched woodland next to economically struggling towns and villages, the mundane reality for many people in Britain). These contradictions are also expressed in the painting and sculpture process and through presentation of the artwork. Artists such as George Shaw have influenced my process and how I go about exploring place. This is further discussed in the work, The Forest Floor, 2019.

 I am interested in how this childish vision operates from an adult perspective. Ideas are influenced by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, whose work explores these tensions through the relationship of mother and daughter and feminist, post-Freudian imagery such as Nature Study, 1986. Dorothea Tanning, a painter and sculptor, is also an inspiration. Tanning’s work explores childhood and maturity through surrealist, dreamlike paintings, later evolving into living cloth sculptures which manifest concerns of the feminine and the living, ageing human body. This has shifted how I think about my soft sculptures. For our Interim exhibition these became much more bodily and limb like in appearance, through fleshy tones and shapes, combined with the painting to form an awkward sitting installation. The sculptural elements are contorted, unidentifiable shapes that extend from the painting. They are something that could exist within the world of the painting and an extension of imagination, slowly emerging and stretching out into our world. A sinister form that changes the narrative of the illustrative elements.

 Colour palette is an important decision in the process of the painting and sculptural work. They are often light and pastel tones of mainly pink, blue and yellow. Stronger, almost violent brush strokes of block colour like reds, brown, and green create an unsettling, unnatural looking twist to the forest scene. Earthy tones create the base of the canvas, layered up with pretty, romantic, pastel shades, and bursts of yellow to create light and shadow. My painting technique takes reference from many sources, one artist being Peter Doig. I take inspiration from elements of Doig’s work such as the loose brush stroke technique, illustrative style and fantasy aura his paintings display, for example in the painting, Grande Riviere, 2001-2002. 

For my final portfolio the intention was to hang a large-scale piece of fabric depicting an engulfing, painted forest scene. Human like, flesh toned shapes in the form of soft sculptures would be attached, hang from, and be scattered around the painting. Due to the changed environment I am working on fitting these elements into a domestic setting. The soft sculptures crawling around the home creates quite an uncomfortable image and the paintings have overwhelmingly surrounded me with trees, bringing the outside in. My art practice has weaved its way into my ritualistic, everyday home routine. Instead of a singular large scale painting I am working on multiple paintings on loose pieces of canvas and fabrics to hang and create an installation space inspired by the work of Vivian Suter (see Garden Studies, 2020). The space will imitate the density of the forest, with sculptural forms twisting in and out.