Teresa Smith

STILLNESS. Oil on Canvas, 36" x 48"

TERESA SMITH graduated from Naropa University with a contemplative arts degree. She exhibits her largescale oil paintings in the US and Canada. She lives on a little ferry served island overlooking Mount Baker and the Salish Sea, with her horses, Irish wolfhounds, and giant fir trees. The mystical nature of trees come to mind as a drippy underpainting connects the dots in the same way mycorrhizae connects a network under surface of earth. "How can I paint the magnificent upper story without root? And what of the wisdom and intelligence of trees? Where is the invisible mind of mother tree? Above ground, magnificent cathedral reaches for the sky, but what of the world wide web of connectedness’ below surface? Do we know? How can I paint the friendships among trees, the families, the relatedness, the invisible concentric interlocking wisdom of ONE HEART? I begin by pouring on oily dripping layers of paint. Allowing the first layer to grow outward and upward like the roots and branches of a tree. This first layer informs the art. I make sense of this by laying in patterns, lines and colors in the same way a tree grows leaves, branches and roots. The composition and colors go together like a puzzle. I decide what color is a perfect companion to the one next to it. Back and forth, foreground to background, color by color, stroke by stroke. I finish the painting in this manner, following the soul of the piece and allowing it to have a voice of its own. The painting is done when it changes the energy in the room. And maybe, in this way, it is possible to paint one heart and the intelligence of trees." - Teresa Smith.