Tremain Smith
Forest of Delight, 2014
OIl, beeswax & collage on panel
24 x 30 x 2"

About the work

In "Forest of Delight" I use the grid as a structure that I build on layer by layer. From this foundation I move freely. The lines, shapes and colors are mappings of the unseen as I seek to visually manifest access to the spiritual. The work expresses emotion with freedom in mark-making, and restraint. There is a push and pull, an in and out that conveys space, awareness, and energy as well as joy and delight an ever-expanding reality. The work is composed of layers of beeswax & oil paint.

Bio

Tremain Smith has four works in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her work is in corporate and private collections across the country. She has had dozens of solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Scottsdale, Maine, Delaware, Florida and Hawaii. Group exhibitions include SOFA Chicago, Art Miami, the Painted Bride, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and the USArtists American Fine Art Show.

Tremain has been reviewed extensively including coverage by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Tribune and the LA Weekly. Her work is included in Encaustic Art in the Twenty-First Century by Anne Lee & E. Ashley Rooney, published by Schiffer Publishing, The Art of Encaustic Painting Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax published by Watson-Guptill, and in the art journal New American Paintings. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Tyler School of Art, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania. She received a Teaching Artist Certificate from the University of the Arts.

Alongside her studio practice, Tremain teaches, lectures, and leads workshops. She was a panelist at the Eighth International Encaustic Conference presenting on "The Roots of Contemporary Encaustic". The technique she uses is composed of layers of oil glazes, collaged elements, and transparent beeswax. Her works on paper are made with a hand-ground recipe of gum arabic and oil emulsion.

Tremain's concerns center on art and healing. Her abstract works are mappings of an inner world. She responds to her paintings with writing, following a creative process that combines painting and poetry. Smith explores, discovers, and heals through both languages.

www.tremainsmith.com

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