German-born artist, Natalie Smith, has been creating art since childhood. She began drawing during seemingly endless dinners at fancy European restaurants. To her mothers surprise, her artworks were often displayed after completion. After earning her Bachelors of Fine Art in post-modern art and experimental theatre at the University of Giessen, she moved to the USA to stu-dy painting and performance art at the University of Texas in Dallas. Smith later earned her Ma-sters of Fine Arts at the University of Montana. After a 20 year career as a theatre director in Bo-ston, Kauai, and San Francisco, Smith resumed painting in 2014, with a focus on abstract landscapes. She currently resides in Hailey, Idaho.

Smith’s formative experience is directly linked to her extensive travels and her experience of na-ture. Her imagery refers to the dark volcanic rocks of the Canary Islands, the ocean sunsets of Boston and Kauai, cold winters in the Rocky Mountains, or imagined sunrises on Mars. Smith’s use of textures such as concrete, coffee, and gold brings a visceral experience to her pain-tings. Smith intends to take the viewer away from themselves into another place of expansive or contracted views of nature and mythology. Nature is above all and will forever be her inspira-tion.
2. Artists Statement
My contemporary abstract paintings follow the intuitive flow of natures’ shapes, textures and lines. This holds true whether I paint landscapes, the metaphor of a poem, or abstract figures. I mostly work in acrylics and often incorporate the rough textures of concrete or coffee, for a mo-re visceral experience of my pieces. The use of 24k gold leaf speaks to me because it is both strong and fragile, fleeting and yet eternal. It serves as an element of illumination and asks que-stions about our unlived potential: How can we shine brighter in our lives? And, whose lives do we illuminate?

My paintings invite a shift in perspective, often focusing on details of gem stones, mountains, bodies of water, poetry or metaphors. Whether I expand or narrow the focus of the subject mat-ter, I hope that the viewer feels the in-between moments of various dimensions, or spaces. It is here where I find art to be the most interesting.