the
Artist
Barry Ross Smith is a visual artist born in Kamo, Northland, New Zealand. He initially trained as a sign writer before taking his O.E (Overseas Experience) in London working as, amongst many other things, a commercial artist.
He returned home to raise a family and is a proud father of two daughters. Barry has been painting for over 30 years, had many solo shows with a long exhibition history. His works feature in public, private and corporate collections across New Zealand, Australia, Europe, North America and Asia.
The Master's Apprentice - info about this piece is in The Artist as Model
I have collected this small piece of text and I'm no longer sure as to its origin... or if perhaps I wrote it myself. I tend to write small phrases down on scraps of paper, sketches or my iPad. Something I heard or read or a thought and usually I try to ascribe the author at the moment of writing - but in this case I didn’t and the exact genesis of this text is lost.. nevertheless the words are a good response as to why painting is inspirational for me:
“…the idea behind a particular painting is not visible in the painting, in the same way an idea is not visible to the eye. The eye can see what the picture represents, but what it represents are the things that result from the process of thinking. Ideas are mental”
If this was lifted from a book; thanks be to the author. I have always felt that painting is a conceptual process; beginning with an idea long before the brush and paint are applied to canvas. My work is surreal, whimsical and full of fiction - because my mind is... I attempt to convey empirical experience, not by a visual relationship to the real world, but by attempting to create perceptual signals within a painting that convey my idea of our relationship to ourselves, to each other and to the world, and these begin in the mind, as thoughts.
Strong influences in my life have been my sister, Rosalie Smith, who was the first to really encourage me when I began dabbling with my art at a very young age. Charlie Rose, Ron Elliott and Mark Tamagni who each gave me more to think about than what I could see with my own eyes and Leanne, my wife, a constant muse and commenter upon my work as it manifests in my head as well as the studio. Without her support, conversation and questioning, I could not have sustained my practice and my misguided thoughts would have won out long ago.
The Studio
New work usually begins with a few sessions in the studio surrounded by my books, an iPad and a charcoal, pencil or brush in hand. Often days go by sketching, researching concepts, procrastinating, daydreaming and drinking black coffee.
I collect these musings in black arts books which hold the inkling of concepts to be developed into new paintings.. they are drawn in a rough shorthand stick-figure manner - a doctors scroll decipherable only to myself, but each holds the nucleus of the new painting and ideas can often combine and manifest, over several pages, into a another concept on a new page.
"Creating new ideas is intuitive, it means not knowing what you're looking for
- but knowing when you see it"
I feel a pervasive emotion surrounding some locations and/or imagery. It's like a nostalgic resonance, like a lingering remembered connection (yet often of unknown places), rich with fresh potential. This is my creative arena - by inhabiting these spaces and imagery when they present themselves and playing/thinking/feeling within them. Ideas materialize, almost pre-conceived, full and rich. My aim is to capture some of these chimera and examine them within a painted space..
Once I have pages of rough preliminary ideas some get developed as larger charcoal and acrylic sketches and drawings to progress the seed a little further. These are useful in order to realize the composition, the contents possible interpretations (which can stimulate further ideas) and how the finished painting might be tackled.
This phase is usually accompanied by a few days of ‘mind painting’ where various strategies to accomplish the final work are run thru mentally. While out driving, walking or before fully waking - I imagine beginning the painting and the application of paint layers to try different scenarios to better serve the concept, or expand upon it, to incorporate other elements. Like cooking a meal, once you are familiar with your ingredients you can conceptualize the final outcome, and I have been painting long enough now that this stage can be crucial to starting in the right direction with a work. By exhausting other alternative paint application ideas in my mind first I can decide upon the right recipe to proceed with.
A painting in the studio can take weeks to many months to complete - starting from building up the initial expressive transparent layers to the more opaque and thoughtful final strokes. As you’re painting, you’re holding the spirit of the idea in your head, attempting to render that cerebral concept in the slippery materiality of pigment.
It is the intensity of painting that with each stroke you make on the canvas you obscure the stroke below. The equilibrium between concealing and/or revealing brushstrokes creates an anxiety between what is presented and what is hidden from view - a painting is an intricate accumulation of these small decisions. From the complete expressive freedom of a blank canvas right up until the final stroke of an artwork, all choices you make coalesce to reveal something about yourself, your character and your mind.
The painting process is resolving the unresolved until no further aspects stand out as in need of attention. The mindful chaos becomes ordered and resolved but often, it is in the rendering of a mind’s idea that something of its purity is lost - you can never surpass nor even match the quality of the mind's eye.
