Sheree Smith

Q. What initially drew you to painting as a form
of self-care and personal growth?
A. I have always loved art and pursued creative hobbies.
At school, art and textiles were my favourite subjects and when my husband and I purchased our first home, I made art to fill our blank walls and loved to reupholster and restore old retro furniture. Once our kids came along, that put any creative aspirations I had on hold. Being a mum can sometimes feel all-consuming, I felt like my creativity was totally gone! 

A fellow school mum and Artist Lauren Ward, saw my
paintings hanging in my home and encouraged me to pick up a paintbrush again. I was resistant at first, telling her “I’ve lost all my creativity and don’t have time to paint!” But it is amazing when something makes you feel alive
and excited again, how you quickly manage to find the
time for and prioritise it!

My career has exposed me to vicarious trauma, working
with people with complex needs in a challenging environment. My art practice has become a mindfulness exercise for me, a form of art therapy and self-care, a
way to unwind and process the day.

Q. How would you describe your artistic style? 
A. I have a tendency towards a methodical and structured approach in my paintings, with a bit of a perfectionist nature and an affinity for tidiness. I think my work infuses joy through the playful interplay of colours and motion in
a neat and ordered manner.

Q. Can you walk us through your creative process when starting a new piece?
A. I don’t plan much before I start painting, unless it’s a commissioned piece of course! I mix my own colours in
little plastic tubs and often try to use up the colours from the previous artwork to lay the base layers down for the next work I hate any waste and it’s almost like the last completed work informs the beginning of the next one! 
I paint and choose the colours intuitively without much thought process involved.

Q. How do you decide on the specific moments or emotions you want to capture?
A. It depends on how I am feeling at the time. In winter,  I’m certainly craving colour and happiness to get me through the colder months. In summer, I often reminisce about holidays in my childhood spent at the beach and tend to be drawn to a lot of blue with the ocean
and warm summer skies.

Q. Can you tell us more about how living in Jervis Bay
influences your art?
A. I really love where we live and I take a lot of inspiration from our stunning beaches. The rhythms and movement
of the ocean, the repetition of waves coming in and out,  the turquoise colours of the white sandy beaches. We have a carnival visit over the summer and the lights, the colour and fun of the Husky carnival certainly come out in my work, along with the many colourful ice creams and the summer fun we have in such a great part of the world certainly play a part in the colour and vibrancy of
my works.

Q. Your use of vibrant palettes is striking. How do you decide on the colour palettes you use in your works?
A. I often don’t have a planned colour palette in mind
when starting a piece, I just pick up colours intuitively, mixing and working it out as I go, depending on my
mood and what colours I am drawn to on the day! Bright colours just bring me such joy and are such a mood lifter,
I am just naturally drawn to them. 

Q. What is your favourite colour? Does it describe you
as a person?
A. I don’t think I have a favourite colour, I love them all – so it’s hard to choose! Anything bright and happy is my jam! I probably have a least favourite colour to paint with- yellow. I often try to put it in a piece and end up taking it out – very few of my artworks end up with any yellow left in them because I always feel it’s a bit overpowering.

Q. What do you find most meditative about the act of repetitive mark-making?
A. I find painting in the way I do such a lovely meditative process. Laying down the same line over and over, there isn’t generally much thinking that needs to occur about composition until a bit close to the end when I need to make some adjustments to bring everything together
into a cohesive piece. I was weeding the garden with my husband recently and I likened the repetitiveness of the weed pulling to when I’m painting repetitive lines and I
feel so calm and relaxed when I’m doing it – it’s rather hypnotic and very theraputic!

Q. Can you share more about the symbolism behind the
repetitive marks in your paintings?
A. Marking the lines onto a canvas, I liken it to counting
moments in time. Like an inmate marking the days that have passed on the wall of his cell. The mark of another
day done, another memory in the mind’s bank. The
lines represent the moments and memories you gather along the way, on your journey in life. Each line marks
a moment in time. They are lines of experiences, adventures and explorations, etched into your memories.

Q. How do you experiment with different textures and
mediums in your artwork?
A. I love to add texture when laying down the initial layer
of paint and use tools to scratch into the wet paint to add some texture. Some of my paintings have skeleton leaves embedded into them, and other works have used postage stamps hidden within them, to add interest and intrigue.
I love the stories behind stamps, the messages they sent and the stories they told. I also experiment with collage at times on the underpainting with parts of collage that peek through in the final piece which is playful and fun. I love
to use full-bodied acrylic paints that are thick and buttery for my lines to create texture and add interest.

Q. Your work captures moments in time, can you share
a memory that influenced one of your pieces?
A. One of my pieces in this new collection release “By The Pool” is featured on The Block in 2024. I painted this in summer in early 2024 after spending many hours by the pool watching my kids have fun over the school holidays.

It captures the pure joy and happiness that a pool brings
to young kids and to myself who enjoy sitting by it and watching them spend endless hours jumping, diving, splashing and sliding into it over and over again! I love
the little hints of pink in there from the pink flamingo inflatable and the yellow from the summer sunshine.
It’s just pure summer happiness.

Q. What feeling do you hope to convey through your art?
A. I hope that my art is full of joy and happiness, with the
interplay of colours and motion. My aim is for my art to brighten up collectors homes with the power of colour and simplicity. I hope that people can find their own memories and experiences within the lines, knowing life has its ups and downs, but each memory, etched into us line by line, makes us who we are today.