We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Audrey Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Audrey, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

My approach to executing an idea is somewhat paradoxical; the idea develops during the process of creating the painting.

A photoshoot is my starting point. Psychological atmosphere is key. I direct poses that communicate a sense of introspection, contemplation, with an air of gravitas.

Hundreds of photos are narrowed down to those in which that atmosphere is also captured in light, shadows, and elements that defy definition.

Then I sketch – thumbnails first to find a sense of composition. I experiment with cropping. When I’ve prepped my panels, I sketch directly on them with charcoal. Layers of paint are added. More charcoal comes into play. Paint is sanded away, etched, scraped, pulled through. And repeat, until a visual history can be read on each panel.

Audrey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I consider myself a voyeur; an outsider capturing moments, watching from the periphery. Recording it through colour and light, visceral gestures capturing inner landscapes.

As a child I spent hours building forts – in the snow, under tables, in fields of tall grasses. Forts allowed me to be both immersed in life and removed from it. Inhabiting those 2 worlds of being – I want that to become alive in my work.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I get to be that child, building forts.

I’ve learned that observation has a monumental presence in my art. But I still have to push through it, translating it into my own visual language.

As for forts, they still exist in my world. They’ve taken shape as a quiet corner table in an otherwise busy restaurant, a warn path through a dense forrest, a hidden trail. And my Studio!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that success was defined by the number of people that liked my work or followed me on social media.

The greatest returns came when I found my own voice. And success, as I know it, came when I mastered control over that voice and the echoes that sometimes shadow it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://audreysmithartist.com
• Instagram: audrey.smith.artist