Joy Kirton Smith
Travel, the Italian Renaissance masters and painters and decorators. These are the three key inspirations behind celebrated contemporary fine artist, Joy Kirton-Smith doing what she does with a paintbrush and a variety of canvases on a pretty regular basis. The first refers to her love of circumnavigating the globe, taking in the unique and hugely influential sights and sounds universally associated with Venice, New Orleans, Prague and Grand Cayman, whilst the second is self-explanatory if you already know your da Vinci from your Michelangelo. The third strand however might take some explaining, but has a lot to thank Kirton-Smith’s family for. A long time before BBC1’s Changing Rooms was commissioned and made everyone think they were Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, Kirton-Smith’s dad and two elder brothers were painting and decorating their merry way through great swathes of rural Worcestershire, only with a difference. Fronting far more creative ways in which to paper walls and applying blue sky thinking to the home décor approach in general at a time when competitors, weren’t.
But returning to the whole past masters source of truly artistic inspiration, and a large percentage of Kirton-Smith’s work stems from her enduring interest in capturing the aesthetic qualities of the human form. To this end, her current images combine a contrast between form and flux, tangible entitles engulfed in a constantly changing environment. With this in mind, we are often therefore presented with heightened illustrative imagery that subtly hint at eroticism on one hand and earthliness on the other; whilst simultaneously suggesting that the reminder of all formations are transient. Much has been made, positively of course, of Kirton-Smith’s predilection for fusing her focal characters into merged backgrounds, abstracting the often dancing figures from their stage.
Born in the UK’s West Midlands, near Stourbridge in the heart of what’s known as the Black Country on account of its heavily industrialised heritage, Kirton-Smith’s family later moved to rural Worcestershire, and settled in the River Severn-hugging, Old Fleet. It was at this juncture that Kirton-Smith’s father and two elder male siblings set up and ran their forward-thinking painting and decorating business, serving the locals and further a field with their adventurous styles and innovative materials touched on above. However Kirton-Smith’s first taste of art education in any formal surround was when she opted to attend Halesowen College a number of years down the line, where she bagged herself an A-Level in Fine Art; before electing to stay on at the further education establishment and familiarising herself with far more advanced techniques and art and material applications than she might have otherwise had the opportunity to explore, in the capacity of being a workshop member.
Almost obsessed with the manner in which subsequent drawing techniques could foster this all-consuming sense of movement and vitality onto canvas, paper or whatever surface the artist chose to adapt, Kirton-Smith’s fascination with Michelangelo and da Vinci in particular increased, alongside of her acknowledgment and respect for the techniques of Rembrandt and the Flemish school in the Rjyksmuseum, Amsterdam.
As a professional and highly-collectable contemporary figurative artist practising today, Kirton-Smith is ably represented from a commercial viewpoint by one of the country’s most prominent and successful fine art publishers, Washington Green, who during their collaboration with Kirton-Smith have been instrumental in the reproducing of some 40 plus quality limited edition prints based on the artist’s original compositions. During her time pursuing her artistic career, Kirton-Smith has witnessed her work being showcased at a prestigious selection of art galleries far and wide, while various pieces have become part of private collections throughout Europe. In addition to this, Kirton-Smith’s individual and collective paintings/bodies of work have also been acknowledged by industry stalwarts and gatekeepers, the Fine Art Trade Guild, who awarded her the much sought-after accolade of ‘Best Artist’ in recent history.
But returning to the whole past masters source of truly artistic inspiration, and a large percentage of Kirton-Smith’s work stems from her enduring interest in capturing the aesthetic qualities of the human form. To this end, her current images combine a contrast between form and flux, tangible entitles engulfed in a constantly changing environment. With this in mind, we are often therefore presented with heightened illustrative imagery that subtly hint at eroticism on one hand and earthliness on the other; whilst simultaneously suggesting that the reminder of all formations are transient. Much has been made, positively of course, of Kirton-Smith’s predilection for fusing her focal characters into merged backgrounds, abstracting the often dancing figures from their stage.
Born in the UK’s West Midlands, near Stourbridge in the heart of what’s known as the Black Country on account of its heavily industrialised heritage, Kirton-Smith’s family later moved to rural Worcestershire, and settled in the River Severn-hugging, Old Fleet. It was at this juncture that Kirton-Smith’s father and two elder male siblings set up and ran their forward-thinking painting and decorating business, serving the locals and further a field with their adventurous styles and innovative materials touched on above. However Kirton-Smith’s first taste of art education in any formal surround was when she opted to attend Halesowen College a number of years down the line, where she bagged herself an A-Level in Fine Art; before electing to stay on at the further education establishment and familiarising herself with far more advanced techniques and art and material applications than she might have otherwise had the opportunity to explore, in the capacity of being a workshop member.
Almost obsessed with the manner in which subsequent drawing techniques could foster this all-consuming sense of movement and vitality onto canvas, paper or whatever surface the artist chose to adapt, Kirton-Smith’s fascination with Michelangelo and da Vinci in particular increased, alongside of her acknowledgment and respect for the techniques of Rembrandt and the Flemish school in the Rjyksmuseum, Amsterdam.
As a professional and highly-collectable contemporary figurative artist practising today, Kirton-Smith is ably represented from a commercial viewpoint by one of the country’s most prominent and successful fine art publishers, Washington Green, who during their collaboration with Kirton-Smith have been instrumental in the reproducing of some 40 plus quality limited edition prints based on the artist’s original compositions. During her time pursuing her artistic career, Kirton-Smith has witnessed her work being showcased at a prestigious selection of art galleries far and wide, while various pieces have become part of private collections throughout Europe. In addition to this, Kirton-Smith’s individual and collective paintings/bodies of work have also been acknowledged by industry stalwarts and gatekeepers, the Fine Art Trade Guild, who awarded her the much sought-after accolade of ‘Best Artist’ in recent history.