Katie Smith, Edge of the Quiet Hills

Description

Katie Smith
Edge of the Quiet Hills
Mixed Media
880mm x 340mm
$500

My paintings are grounded in the quiet solitude of New Zealand’s back blocks – vast, untamed landscapes that shaped my earliest memories and continue to inform my creative practice. Growing up on an isolated farm in Northland, I developed a deep connection to the rhythms of nature and the stillness that exists in remote places. This early immersion in the land continues to guide the way I observe, interpret, and respond to the world around me. Through my work, I seek to capture the quiet essence of these environments: the hush of wind moving through native bush, the shifting light across distant hills, and the sense of timelessness that lingers in untouched terrain. Each painting becomes an invitation to pause, to breathe, and to reconnect with the land in a way that is both deeply personal and universally felt. My painting process is intuitive and responsive, evolving organically in dialogue with the surface itself. I allow the texture, marks, and layers to guide each decision, embracing unpredictability as an essential part of the work. Rather than imposing a fixed outcome, I follow the painting as it unfolds, responding to subtle shifts in tone, gesture, and material, creating works that reflect both the physical landscape and an internal, lived experience of place.