Lindsay Smail
Washago, Ontario
Abstract landscape painter rooted in the patterns, edges, and light of the natural world.
MessageLindsay Smail is a Canadian painter living and working in the woods outside Washago, Ontario. Her abstract landscape paintings arise from close observation of the patterns, edges, and light of the natural world.
Smail holds a Master's in English Literature from the University of Toronto and studied typography and graphic design at OCAD. After a career as a creative director, she left Toronto in 2018 and began developing a rigorous painting practice. Mostly self-taught, she challenges her work by studying with established artists including Iris Häussler and Robert Szot.
Her work has been exhibited widely across Ontario and is held in private collections in Canada and the United States.
Statement
As I swim, hike, or paddle through local forests and waterways I notice the chaotic yet deeply organized beauty of nature and its principles of interdependence and constant change. Leaves, fractured rock, and ragged shorelines reveal recurring motifs.
These experiences and observations are the foundation of my paintings. Rather than represent specific places, I focus on form, pattern, and colour, recombining these elements into abstract paintings that evoke landscape.
Edges fascinate me. Working with watercolour-like acrylic on clear-primed canvas I’m able to create edges that are complex and self-similar. Many of my forms resemble landscapes in and of themselves, echoing the fractal structures I observe in nature. Creating these edges demands a balance between control and allowing the expansion of water and pigment into the canvas.
I begin with naturalistic, translucent colour, then push into brightness and opacity to disrupt and surprise. In my studio, paintings evolve slowly in a patient process of layering to create depth and a sense of passing time. I want the painting to feel like something that grew rather than something that was arranged.