CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Ken Smith

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Ken Smith’s landscape and still life paintings offer delicate glimpses of a world seen in equal measure. Continuing to respond to the landscape of the Mornington Peninsula region where he lives, Smith's images explore an ongoing attempt to articulate the visual characteristics of light and tone through the practice of on site and studio painting. While unapologetically straightforward in their choice of subject matter and repeated iteration of visual elements, their underlying design reveals a complex and systematic exploration of light and its reception.

Recently, Smith has become more attuned to the passage of time and the ever-changing phenomena within the landscape, where everything is in a state of flux. By manipulating line, shape, texture, composition, tone, and colour, Smith encapsulates the essence of time in his art. It is the last and most inexplicable of these elements – colour – that now seems to be most associated with the transience of time.

'The elegance and apparent ease of Smith’s paintings belies the thought and extensive process that goes into them. For Smith is a craftsman of the highest order; the landscape is his subject but his object is to translate what he sees into a self-contained system of complementary colours, tones and lines. The landscape is, as he points out, like a new picture every day. It is these minute variations in light and atmosphere that engage him on a deep level, and which he endeavours to describe within his work. A by-product of this approach is that his paintings have an aching stillness about them.'
Simon Gregg, Director Gippsland Art Gallery

'Smith’s compositions draw the eye away from the immediate, away from the here and now, and out toward what lies beyond, to the activities and conditions taking place ‘over there’ – a singular streak of cirrus cloud, a distant sheet of dark grey rain, the slow passage of a container ship, smoke rising from a distant landmark. Everything is rendered with equal clarity, all crystalline and sharply focused. Bright, white light casts strong, well-defined shadows and accentuates the vivid saturation of things. Sky and sea form within calm swathes of tonal gradation, shifting through a spectrum of blues, pinks or greys; darker at the horizon, hazy through the fog, weedy and green nearer the shore, undiluted and pure at the midday zenith.

With an empirical approach to colour selection reflecting a deep understanding of the subtle nuances of atmosphere and perception, Smith allows sky and sea to converge in an orchestration of hues. From the graduated blues of distant horizons to the luminous interplay of light and water, each composition captures the fleeting beauty of nature's palette. As we navigate our way through his evocative compositions, we are reminded of the boundless wonder that lies beyond the horizon and of the enduring power of art to capture an essence of our world in all its vivid complexity.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Phe Luxford, 2024

ARTIST PROFILE:
Ken Smith, a former Lecturer in Drawing at MADA, Monash University's Faculty of Art Design and Architecture, has gained significant recognition over his many decades of practice. He has been a finalist in esteemed awards such as the National Still Life Award (2025, 2021), the Fleurieu Art Prize, the Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize and the Geelong Acquisitive Print Awards. In 2012 he was awarded the Rick Amor Drawing Prize for his work 'In the Light of History I' and has been shortlisted for the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, the Heysen Prize, and the Jacaranda Acquisitive Art Award multiple times. His 2012 residency at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ireland deeply influenced his work, infusing his practice with the unique essence of the Irish landscape. Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery honoured Smith's artistic journey in 2014 with a landmark solo exhibition that showcased his profound connection to the region's seaside landscapes.

His work is held in prestigious collections such as the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ireland, Artbank, Leeuwin Estate, the Arbitration Commission, and the Commonwealth Bank. Additionally, his pieces are part of the collections at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Bundaberg Arts Centre, Devonport Gallery and Arts Centre, Grafton Regional Gallery, and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.

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Media Highlights

Coastal Landscape 6 2023
oil on panel, framed
30cm x 17cm (framed size 49 x 35cm)
$1,800 AUD

Coastal Landscape 5 2023
oil on panel, framed
30cm x 17cm (framed size 49 x 35cm)
$1,800 AUD

A Road by the Sea 2 2024
oil on panel, framed
30cm x 16cm (framed size 49 x 35cm)
$1,800 AUD

A Road by the Sea 1 2024
oil on panel, framed
30cm x 16cm (framed size 49 x 35cm)
$1,800 AUD

Coastal Landscape 4 2022
oil on panel, framed
10cm x 18cm (framed size 28 x 37cm)
$750 AUD

Hill and Sea 2021
acrylic on canvas
62cm x 112cm , framed
$5,500 AUD

Beach 2, (speedboat) 2022
acrylic on paper, framed
96cm x 64cm (framed size 118 x 86 cm)
$6,500 AUD

Study for Beach Still Life 2024
acrylic on panel, framed
20cm x 20cm , (framed size 47 x 44cm)
$1,800 AUD

A Building by the Sea 2022
acrylic on paper, framed
56cm x 99cm (framed size 78 x 120 cm)
$6,500 AUD

Sea Life 2023
archival pigment print, framed
59cm x 42cm (framed size 69 x 51cm)
$950 AUD

Bather 2024
archival pigment print, framed
42cm x 59cm Ed of 10 (framed size 51 x 69cm)
$950 AUD

Beach 4 (Yellow Green) 2023
archival pigment print, unframed
42cm x 59cm
$750 AUD

Beachside Suburb 2020
oil on paper
13cm x 23cm unframed
$1,200 AUD

Cruiseliner 2007
oil on paper
11cm x 24cm unframed
$1,200 AUD

Channel Marker 2016
oil on paper
20cm x 11cm unframed
$850 AUD

Beach Study 1 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 22cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 2 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 22cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 3 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 22cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 4 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 17cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 5 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 23cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 6 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 18cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 7 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 27cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 8 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 22cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 9 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 22cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD

Beach Study 10 2020
archival pigment ink, AP on exhibition, edition of 10
15cm x 22cm - full paper size 30 x 42cm (unframed)$2,500AUD for the full suite of 10
$350 AUD