New York-based artist Samantha Keely Smith paints breathtaking abstract landscapes that resemble the swirling waters of the ocean. Using oil paint, enamel, and shellac, Smith builds up multiple translucent layers of color, alternating between soft brushstrokes and large, sweeping gestures to evoke crashing waves, surging tides, and stormy floods. Looking at her ethereal paintings, which are quite large and imposing when viewed in person, one can almost smell the salty ocean spray and hear the splash of seawater.
Although Smith’s works appear to depict real seascapes, she is actually more inspired by an inner world of instinct and emotions in creating her “internal landscapes.” In an interview with NeverLazy Magazine, she says, “My images are not at all real places or even inspired by real places. They are emotional and psychological places. Internal landscapes, if you will. The tidal pull and power of the ocean makes sense to me in terms of expressing these things, and I think that is why some of the work has a feel of water about it. My work speaks of things that are timeless, and I think that for most of us the ocean represents something timeless.”
