The Paintings

1. Cave Paintings January 22-31

Exploring colour and texture within the pictorial language of the Lascaux cave paintings, this mini-series is celebrates the act of drawing/painting as an intuitive response to a mysterious world.

fire horse year of the horse cave painting art london artist sam smith original

2. Anatomical Studies February 1-8

Observational pencil and charcoal drawings within the classical tradition. These eight works will uncover the elegant anatomical truths of the horse.

year of the horse painting drawing art london-based artist anatomical study original artwork

3. Naive February 9-20 (12 paintings)

Now that the anatomy of the horse has been mapped, the stylistic pendulum swings to the other extreme with this opportunity to explore colour and wild expressive shapes in this 12 day gambol into a world of playful line and shape.

naive painting folk art colourful horse painting year of the horse

4. Classical February 21-28 (8 paintings)

We now circle back to re-uptake the classical language founded in the 'Anatomical Studies' mini-series, building on it by introducing colour. This collection of eight figurative paintings will use prompts of Delacroix, Gericault and Rosa Bonheur.

5. Horses & People March 1-12 (12 paintings)

Horses have been used for exploration and travel, racing, war and for leisure and this series will celebrate this relationship between horse and (wo)man over the millennia.

6. Symbolism & Mysticism March 13-21 (9 paintings)

Developing on the 'Horses & People' theme, these works will move away from the figurative and incorporate the abstract, symbolic and geometric as an attempt to discover the psychic dimension of these mysterious creatures. Think William Blake, Pegasus and Shadowfax (Gandalf's horse)...

7. Abstract March 22-31 (10 paintings)

This is a chance to completely break free from the figurative and use pattern, colour and expressive brushwork to deconstructing the image of the horse and make visible what lies out of sight but what is equally as real.

8. Running Free April 1 - May 1 (30 paintings)

After 3 months of study and deep-diving into the visual and conceptual world of the horse, the finalé is when the parameters of theme are dissolved. With no restrictions on style or theme, these paintings will materialise what the psyche has visually and emotionally processed throughout the previous 70 days of work. Equally, the ideas that came up throughout the first 70 days but did not match the parameters of theme at the time now have a chance to run free!