Rita Smith
CONTEMPORARY PAINTINGS AND ORIGINAL PRINTS

Rita Smith is a contemporary artist whose career began as an abstract painter, making large oil paintings based on urban landscape, architecture and interior spaces. During this period she also began experimenting with watercolours, both abstract and figurative, exploring mood and atmosphere, attempting to bring a richness not normally found in the medium.

There had been a theme running through the early abstract work of thresholds between inside and outside, with references to landscape seen through doors and windows or reflected in mirrors. This theme became the focus of a major change in direction away from abstract oil paintings, towards a more realistic approach to the subject, using watercolour.

In her representational watercolours of interiors and still life paintings she set out to explore the complexities of spatial illusion and realism, and found that in working from observation she could combine a sense of poetry, geometry and architecture into the image.

Printmaking has been an important part of her work over the past 10 years. At first she made etchings of still life subjects, but a visit to New York reawakened her love for cityscapes, and she began a series of etchings based on New York architecture, attempting to capture the mood, atmosphere, and a sense of place.

Since moving to Plymouth in 2006, city living has pulled her back towards a more abstract method of working, but generally on a more intimate scale than previously. However, she still likes the freedom to move between abstract and representational approaches to painting.

On this website is a selection of abstract and representational paintings, oils and watercolours, as well as limited edition etchings of still life subjects and cityscapes of New York.