14
Soul Gatherer
Colour, while subtly enunciated, is also a highly important expressive tool. “I
feel colours,” he says, “and every day is different. Sometimes I feel more
green or blue, at the time I’m doing. It’s like a little voice in my head saying,
‘right, you want red now, or dark red, or white, green,’ or whatever. I just take
it as it comes.” Remarkably, Smith’s chosen medium for drawn line and
colour in both his drawings and sculpture is graphite and colour pencil. These
lend themselves well both to the physicality of his technique and a felt need to
avoid chemical paints and varnishes. By repeatedly working into his surfaces
and over existing marks Smith achieves deep, subtle effects. Aided by the wax
binding agent in colour pencils, he is able to, as he puts it, “really embed it.”
He will lay “colour on colour and polish and polish. I get right into it. I just rub
it. It comes off a bit, and I do it again.”
'Untitled' 2013. Crayon on found card, 5.5 x 8 ins.

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