Smith, Malcolm

Malcolm is originally from British Columbia, where he grew up in a family that immigrated to Canada from the UK. He relocated to Nova Scotia in the mid-1990s, where he worked for many years as a scientist for the federal government. With minimal background in art, he began working in acrylics in 2024 with a primary focus on landscape. More recently, he has begun to include interiors, figures and abstract forms in his work. In addition to Teichert, his work has appeared in the Contemporary Arts Society Juried Show, the Mosaic for Mental Health Halifax and L'Arche Halifax exhibitions. He has been a member of the Contemporary Art Society of Nova Scotia since 2025.

Artist Statement

Art has been made by people for more than 30,000 years. It is an impulse of the human mind, stimulated by the awareness of the senses. This is how I imagine the ancient cave paintings first came about: the impulse to record or recall something seen, an experience felt. 

Visual art teaches us how to see - to see the world around us, and to see with our imagination. In some manner through the functioning of the right hemisphere of the brain, visual perception is connected to the emotions, giving art its potency, and giving us a vital connection to ourselves. 

I think as long as there are humans, there will have to be art of some kind. As for me, I am just one human who came to art rather late. Apart from what I have said above I don't have any particular philosophy about art. I don't even have a favourite painter, although I have long enjoyed looking at pictures. Because I am relatively new to art I am only now discovering the way that some colours go together better than others, and the way that some brushstrokes can seem just right. As a convenience, I mostly use my own photographs as references but do not constrain myself to them. When I work on a painting I try to give it my undivided attention so as to sustain a certain mood or feeling toward it that carries through to the work.