Smerek, Kim

Kim Smerek is a multi-disciplinary artist and illustrator. Kim studied illustration at Ontario College of Art in Toronto. Her career of the last 35 years has spanned multiple genres, including sign painting, scenic art for theatre, fabricating props, backdrops and exhibits for museum, commercial and film industry clients. She has been highlighted in Phoenix Home & Garden magazine for trompe l'oeil and murals created for interior designers in Scottsdale and Sedona, Arizona. Kim has facilitated multiple residencies in schools across Canada, sharing the joy of process and play.

 Personal work focuses on growth and the natural world, often highlighting details and moments in time.

Artist’s Statement

Most of what I do as an artist comes out of my interactions with nature, I take a lot of reference photos when I'm out walking. I spot a combination of colours or a pattern; I am drawn to colour. 

Colours are like musical notes, in nature they are a perfect symphony. When I create a colour palette for a painting, I want to make sure the colours are tuned to one another in the same way they are in the picture I'm working from: I could tune the palette in any direction, I could disregard the colours in my reference picture and change them to anything. 

I love that rocks wear a richer colour when they're wet. We all know what happens when you take a rock out of the water: as it dries, the colour fades. It is the vibrance of wet rocks that I love. I'm a rock collector and can't go on a walk without a stone or two ending up in my pocket. I can honestly say I've moved mountains. 

I notice the pattern and play of light over the rocks beneath the surface, the shapes of the light are dependent on the motion of the water. I love that the outlines of rocks get distorted when the water runs over them. I love that the surrounding landscape reflects on the water as a shadow and makes the rocks super clear in those areas. There is the light reflected on the rocks below the surface, and the light reflected off the surface of the water: two different planes with moving light, one underneath the other. 

Every moment is different; how to show this with paint? How to show that movement when the reflected shapes are changing constantly? To capture movement with paint when paint can only encapsulate a brief moment in time, has always been a quandary for me. It is always about capturing light, I am a painter of light.