Leading practitioner Michael Smither is known for his hard edged style often encompassing an environmental and personal content.
With colourful musicality, Smither's recent screen-prints abstract and simplify the local landscape surrounding his Otama Studio. Smither portrays boats in the Okahu harbour, paring them down to flags of colour. 'Backbeach' depicts the islands off Port Taranaki, while in 'Phantoms Peak', Mt Taranaki is reduced to a curvaceous blue delineation. The 'After Seurat' series developed from the artist's travels to the UK and USA to view Seurat's paintings. 'Normally,' states the artist, 'the preface 'after' indicates a copy of another artists’ work. In this case it refers to the inspiration Seurat's paintings had on the development of my own work.' |
