|
Angus A.M. (diptych, left side),
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
Angus A.M. (diptych, right side),
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
Lunan Light,
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
Morning,
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
 
Night Lake,
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
Strawberry Morning,
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
Summer Water,
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
Wine Light,
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
Ziggurat Island,
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW
|
Ian McKenzie-Smith, CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW, HRA, RGI, LLD
Ian McKenzie-Smith’s paintings show his enduring commitment to a distinctly personal brand of landscape-based abstraction: a subtle, evocative way of painting, that owes something to Eastern traditions, as well as to the American colour-field painters of the 1950’s. He took part in Compass Gallery’s inaugural exhibition in 1969 and has been a regular exhibitor throughout the past 40 years. In his previous exhibitions with us, we wrote of the calm, quiet quality of his work that inspired our admiration. These qualities continue unabated to inspire the viewers and his hallmark is immediately evident, highlighting a personal and thought provoking calmness: nothing is sharply defined, atmosphere and ambient colour are suggested at times with an almost oriental restraint. McKenzie-Smith was born in Montrose in 1935 and studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and at Hospitalfield in Arbroath from 1953-58. A travelling scholarship in 1959 took him to Paris where he met the Japanese artist, Kenzo Okada, and encountered Zen philosophy. An oriental sense of balance and calligraphic finesse has been a feature of his work ever since. Awarded the OBE for his services to Art in 1992, and the CBE in 2009, he was President of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour 1988-1998, Secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy from 1991 to 1998 and President of the RSA from 1998 to 2007. He was Director of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums for almost 30 years and was a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland. He has work in many public collections including the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth and Glasgow Art Galleries and in the US and Japan.
|
