Artists We Love: Alexia Smit

INTERVIEWED BY Michaela Stehr IMAGES Supplied

Cape Town-based artist Alexia Smit’s paintings evoke a moody sense of nostalgia, reminiscent of dreamlike moments. We talk to her about how television, cinema, light and feeling influence her works.

How did you get involved in art?

I’ve been fascinated with visual images for as long as I can remember. As a child I drew pictures on just about any surface I could find and I still compulsively scribble drawings on the margins of all my books.  My interest in images led me to a career studying cinema as a film theorist and lecturer.  But about four years ago I felt a powerful need to return to the material practice of drawing and painting that had delighted me in my youth. When I started painting in oils for the first time, it was a point of no return. I think the exhilaration of finding oil painting felt for me a bit like dizzy euphoria of falling in love. When I think of my journey to painting this quote by Annie Dillard always comes to mind.

“I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.” ― Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

To continue Dillard’s metaphor, now that I know I am “a bell” I plan to ring for the rest of my life.

What does a regular day look like for you?

An ideal day in the studio involves a 9am start and at least four hours at the easel. I love to listen to audiobooks while and I work.  Artmaking also involves other forms of work  like finding and preparing subject matter along with the administrative work that goes with artmaking and selling. I balance my art practice with my scholarly and teaching career. I incorporate my film studies scholarship into my art process so these areas of my life aren’t entirely separate but they do sometimes pull me in very different directions.

How did you come across your medium and do you explore other options?

I think the answer above has already covered my obsession with oil paint. In highschool we were told oils were messy, expensive and difficult so I only tried it in adulthood. I’ve found oil to be a much more forgiving medium than acrylic or watercolour. But beyond this oil has a sensuousness and tactility that is just delicious to me. Despite being such a traditional medium it has endless applications. I do dabble with other media from time to time. I have recently been playing with video essay making and risograph printing. I’m tempted to get into ceramics and I also love working with textiles.  However, oil painting is my ‘home’ and there is so much possibility for experimentation within oil painting that I am far away from every exhausting my interest in the medium.  

Where do you go for inspiration?

I think painting is a way living ( the best way of living!) and I am constantly looking at the world around me  as material for painting. I love the way in which painting enlivens the senses so that everything I look at is a joyous dance of colour, light and form. 

I draw a great deal of inspiration from film and television images. I also often use ideas from film theory as starting points for my work. My paintings are concerned with the storytelling capacity of images. I am particularly influenced by feminist film theory because so much of this work examines the role of pleasure in the visual field. I also play with cinematic visual effects like dissolves and double exposures. I love using old photographs, slides, and visual artefacts like postcards. I like to see what happens when images are translated from photographic forms into painterly expression.

What feeling do you try to evoke through your work?

For me a painting is working well when it evokes a sense of mystery. I like to harness suspense and curiosity through the scenes I construct. Painting is an attempt at translation between the material world and the imaginative world of the artist. I think when we are moved by a painting it is because we can sense that striving  or urge of the artist to reach out beyond ourselves.

What plans do you have for the next year?

this year I am working on some much bigger canvases (at least for me). I’ve got large body of work in process which I hope to exhibit soon.

Are there any up-and-coming artists who we should look out for?

I would check out Diana Vives. She’s an amazing sculptor.

How would you describe your style?

Moody figurative studies rendered in a loose painterly style

Tell us about your lockdown art experience?

While I know lockdown was really tough on many people, I think for an artist there is going to be a plus side to being locked away in your home. Just as we were going into lockdown a friend of mine gave me her beautiful large easel which meant I could work at home. I painted my heart out. It was a strange magical time for me.  I think the isolation was good for productivity but I am also glad for this post-lockdown time in which I have been able to rejoin the world of people, connect with other artists, get feedback and attend exhibitions. The social and human side of artmaking is crucial.

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