LOCAL VIEWS – PEN AND WASH

Ian Smith loves to sit out drawing and painting his locality, which is the charming cockle fishing town of Leigh on Sea, situated 3 miles from Southend on the Thames Estuary, just an hour east from London. Here are examples of his pictures that use pen and wash, combining strong line observation with a fine sense of colour. He enjoys working plein air capturing the vitality of the local colour and people. Some paintings are composite images constructed from a number of sketches which combine to give a stunning new design.

LOCAL VIEWS – OILS

Ian Smith paints extremely well in oils. Here he specialises in plein air paintings of local views, with the emphasis on design strong and colour. Have a look at these examples and feel the atmosphere.

IMAGINATIVE PAINTINGS

Ian Smith uses simple sketches direct from nature as a starting point. From here his imagination runs free so that the final paintings are often on the cusp of abstraction. These works can be executed in oils, acrylics or oil paint sticks.

MIXED MEDIA COLLAGE

Here are some examples of the imaginative ways that Ian Smith combines acrylic paint with pen work, resist techniques and crayons to make textural images rich in composition and ideas. Like the mid-century modern English masters that his work reflects, collage is an important element in the design.

ASSEMBLAGE

Ian Smith has investigated the interesting area of assemblage for some years now. He makes or re-uses a box into which are gathered such artefacts as posters, memorabilia, photographs, and perhaps the bric a brac of family life. Sometimes this is personal to the artist, sometimes to the commissioner of the work. Here are examples of this fascinating artwork. You can approach Ian with a proposal to construct a special assemblage for yourself by going to the contact page.