Fiona Smith
"The experience of joy is often underrated. Yet we can find it in the most simple and ordinary things. Peacocks are extraordinary - we would not be without them...The magpies are so elegant and clever. They make themselves part of our extended families. And entertain us with their mimicry. The rainbow lorikeets squabble and deafen as they settle for the evening. The butcher bird song would put any chamber orchestra to shame." - Fiona Smith
Fiona Smith is an award winning writer and painter based in Australia. She began her art education in the 1980s, taking classes at Julian Ashton art school and, more recently, studied with Kerrie Lester and Gria Shead at the Workshop Arts Centre. Smith also perfected her skills by attending workshops with artists such as Lucy Culliton, Robert Malherbe, John Bokor, Amanda Penrose-Hart, David Fairbairn, Juliette Holmes a'Court, and Tim Allen.
Smiths work combines her self confessed fascinations with "how colours sit together and enhance each other, an admiration of design, and the pursuit of beauty". Her main subject matter is the natural world; her aim being to adjust the viewers perception of the natural world around us, and re-defining what we might recgonise within it and others around us, "reminding us how much we all need to stop and consider the things that bring us joy" (Fiona Smith).
This concept of joy is intrinsic to her work, specifically the experience of joy. Smith says: "The experience of joy is often underrated. Yet we can find it in the most simple and ordinary things". Her method to achieve this is, as she describes, to "throw unexpected things together to see if they stick, or spark innovative thinking in some way."
Since beginning her art career Smith has won awards for her work including the Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize (Finalist, emerging artist) in 2019, and the Drummoyne Open Art Prize 2019 (Highly commended).
Of her most recent work she said; "My most recent work celebrates our avian companions, presenting them often as icons against patterned backgrounds based on the elegant designs of fabrics and wallpapers from the Jacobean, Arts and Crafts Movement and Louis XV styles".
Today Smith shares her time at the easel with days at the computer writing.
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Exhibitions
2022
-Spring Song, Grainger Gallery, Fyshwick, group show, September 2022
-Affordable Art Fair Melbourne, September, 2022
-Domesticus solo show, Michael Reid Murrarundi, 2-19 Jun 2022
-Interconnected, group show by Beautiful Bizarre magazine at NERAM (New -England Regional Art Museum), Armidale. June 2022.
-Affordable Art Fair, Sydney, June 2022.
-Roost, online solo show, Sarah Birtles Art & Advice, March 4, 2022.
2021
-Spirit of the Times, solo online, Sarah Birtles Art & Advice, November 2021
-Spring Forward, Wellington Gallery, Waterloo. October 2021
-Snowy Paintings, Grainger Gallery, August 2021.
-Objects de la Vie, Grainger Gallery, group show, April, 2021.
2020
-Raglan Gallery two-artist show, August to October, Cooma 2020
2019
-It's a Wrap, White Rhino Artspace, December 2019
-Close & Familiar, White Rhino Artspace, October 2019
-Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize (Finalist, emerging artist) 2019
-Drummoyne Open Art Prize 2019 (Highly commended)
-Eiger Chalet Easter Exhibition - April 2019, Perisher, NSW
2018
-Once By Happenstance - October 2018, Gauge Gallery, Glebe.
-Art for Hamlin - Celebrating Women, Farr Side Gallery, October.
-Fair Isle Country - May 2018, Design & Detail, Jindabyne.
-Petrichor - March 20 - April 7, 2018, Ewart Gallery, Willoughby.
-Butterfly Foundation - Crows Nest.
2016
-Brushstrokes at the Bay, October 29, 2016, Primrose Park, Cammeray.
-Tea With Kerrie, July 6- July 29, 2016, Ewart Gallery, Willoughby.
