Renay Smith

Scrolling, Mid-Century Style

2023
acrylic on canvas
38 x 38 cm
$420 (framed)

Renay Smith is an artist who investigates the relationship between everyday objects and scenes and their ability to provoke emotions and create a nostalgic and sometimes humorous reflection on time and place. Her early career in Graphic Design evolved into painting and printmaking. In recent years, her creative practice has encompassed still life that contemplates commonplace and collective memories from the recent past and landscapes that consider the near and far.

She works in acrylic on canvas, manipulating her mediums to give a rich texture to her surfaces. Linocut relief printmaking, with strong graphic elements of landscape and interesting and distinctive objects represented in monochrome and mixed media is her other creative focus. An environmental consciousness features prominently in her work.

Through the use of repetition, pattern and colour, reminiscent of mid-century interiors and cultural trends, Smith charts the evolution of a thoughtless and indulgent consumeristic society.
With a deep sense of affection for a time before global wholesale cultural cliches and mindless acquisition, her works are reinterpretations of commemoration and adoration.

Renay’s work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions across NSW. Her paintings and prints, exhibited works and commissioned pieces are with local and interstate collectors. Her influences include Fauvism, Japanese printmaking and traditional Chinese art.