Clare Smith

About the work

The drawing combines spontaneous marks and marks resulting from the use of the paper underneath other drawings in progress, so that ink or colour seeps through unpredictably. Deliberate marks are then made in response to those marks. The red tree emerged during the drawing process, rather than from an initial decision about what to draw.

About the artist:

Born 1959 Penang, Clare Smith lives and works in Dover. Graduated from BA Fine Art, University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury (2004); and MA Fine Art, Central St Martins, University of the Arts, London (2011).

Smith often uses Chinese paper which acts as a cultural substrate for her work – Smith is of mixed Chinese/English heritage. She will often choose quite thin paper to work on, placing another piece of paper underneath it, allowing the ink or paint to bleed through and create unplanned marks. The drawing that follows thus has a history and during the process of creating a new drawing Smith responds to this history, working across the picture plane, both leading and following these lines and marks and making new ones, using repetition as a way of recording time spent.

Selected solo exhibitions include 18 chemo day drawings, Seven Hills Gallery, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield (2020-2021); Beachtime stories, The Line Gallery, The Margate School, Margate (2020); Art in the Park artist in residence: Kearsney Interpreted, Kearsney Park, Dover (2018); and Artist in residence, Wealden Literary Festival (2017). Selected group exhibitions include Out of Isolation, UCA Galleries, Canterbury (2020); Derek’s Room, Studio 3 Gallery, University of Kent, Canterbury (2019); Short Films by artists, curated by Alma Tischler Wood, part of Lewisham Arthouse and Open House (2019); and Selfscapes, Dalby Forest, York St John University (2018).

Awards include being shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (2019).