Sean Smith
University of Miami
Kite Surfing
Acrylic and spray paint
20" x 20"
Starting with ideas of speed and impact I create a strong solid design. Creating a non-objective picture that is visually stimulating, I want the viewer to enjoy the art for what it is, a good painting.
Constantly exploring different methods of application, the surfaces of my paintings alternate through multiple variations of texture, splashes, and spray. These varied expressive marks, coupled with areas of solid form delivers a fast and charged composition. Color choices span warm florescent reds, playful greens and grays to bright garish pinks and blues adding just one more layer to this visual topography. At first glance the paintings may appear as a rigid formal construction and composition, but as the viewer persists, fields of color, texture, and surface variations emerge as complex intersections of lines and forms revealing a realm of geometry and personal iconography.
Colored forms are positioned throughout the painting to create rhythm and movement. Rhythm is the result of the repetition of form which leads the eye from one area to another in a direct, flowing, and explosive motion. By using speed and impact, the active forms play a major role in my work; I don't allow them to become dead opaque colored planes by using different techniques of application. Strong hues and pigments of color are placed in my work to identify and differentiate the flat planes and the various levels of depth. They simultaneously evoke dimensionality and flatness which allows for gratifying opportunities to manipulate a wide variety of color effects. I am essentially just trying to put the right mark in the right spot at the right time.