Ventured to the art library the other day in search of historic abstract landscapes, classic ones. I was looking to flex my languishing art history muscles, hoping to hold in my hand a physical tactile textual book. When asked the librarian said—mind you not an intern, or a part-time, or a work-study—the librarian said, I dunno. And left it at that. So I brought the search to the internet where I was buried in everything I wasn’t looking for. The search broadened, why was I limiting myself to classical work at all? Just when I thought I’d get lost in a deluge of contemporary artists, boom, that’s it—that’s when my eyes found these paintings.
They’re the work of Samantha Keely Smith, a New York City based painter who is originally from Harlow, Essex, England. Her work serves as “an investigation of the struggle between a variety of human impulses: impulses that are as necessary as they are contradictory.”
Somewhere between the carefully considered compositions, the intermixture of mark-making and soothing palette choices, my eye is upset and reconciled. Teased and appeased.
They’re just genuinely pleasant to look at. Thought I’d share. But these are just a few of my personal favorites. Get over to Samantha Keely Smith’s website and find yours.
Tah!
Cantos | 50″ x 84″ | oil and varnish on canvas | 2011
Mutiny | 60” x 72” | oil and varnish on canvas | 2012
Asunder | 56″ x 64″| oil and varnish on canvas | 2006
Headlong | 56″ x 72″ | oil on canvas with varnish | 2015
Credit: All images belong to the Artist, Samantha Keely Smith, published with permission granted on the contingency that we link back to the original post which we are more than happy to do. Visit her site, buy her art.
