Alex Smith
There was one person that immediately came to mind when I decided I wanted to include artist spotlights into the fabric of Lowbrow, and that’s Alex Smith. We sat down to have a chat about a bunch of things including art school, working as an assistant to other artists, painting using alternative mediums, and her practice. You can also listen to the audio of our half hour interview below - including gentle cafe sounds and not so gentle trucks going past.
We went to the VCA together for our undergrad, both in the drawing and printmaking department. Alex came to Melbourne to study from Echuca and felt a bit out of her depth at first.
It was a big learning curve, like culturally speaking. My education back home was good, but coming to art school showed me where I sort of sat amongst everybody else, from everywhere else. It was just so much to learn; what they were teaching, and then also how they were teaching, and all the other shit that I didn't know was a prerequisite. First year was just like whoa, figuring out what I even signed up for. Second year they always sort of threatened us with; this is the year people drop out. I started to see that it wasn't so much about fitting in but rather actively thinking about the work that I'm making in different ways. I was absorbing different stuff I hadn't seen before and in the second year, the ball started rolling. The third year, even though we went into lockdown, it was probably the better year for my practice. Left in my own company I got really into my work, I thought hard about it, and it felt like it was uncovering itself to me. I did honours the following year, also in lockdown. There were different expectations and outcomes there. It wasn't so loosey goosey. I think my practice suffered in honours, I suspect that my brain wasn’t finished cooking yet to be able to take what I was doing seriously. Overall, I really appreciated the environment of art school where everybody else is sort of going through the same thing together. It just sort of feels like a natural growing process. You start realising how your work works, after you make it a lot. It's also beautiful to recognise that happening in the people around you too.
Alex works casually as a studio assistant for Richard Lewer and Teelah George, assisting them with their work.
They’re both very different experiences and I'm sure if I work for other artists, it would be a totally different thing again. I think about if I were to have a studio assistant, I wouldn't want them helping with the physical work, but I’d want them writing the applications. Working for Teelah is really hands on, because her work is so labour intensive and intricate. Working for Richard is just gathering materials, doing bits and bobs, and admin. I set up the physical space and get all the loose ends tied up, so that he can just focus on making the work and talking to the people that he needs to talk to. It’s really nice to be creative and be in a creative space where I'm not thinking about my own work. It's such a privilege to work as a studio assistant as an emerging artist, seeing how working artists make it all happen. It has absolutely helped my practice grow, especially when I work for Richard. He takes the time to talk to me about my work and the steps that I need to take. Watching his processes as a painter as well, I start seeing things that I'm interested in, techniques that I like, but I don't necessarily have to commit to it on my own canvas to see its potential. It's just good to be in and around people who do what you do in different ways. And you sort of learn by osmosis.
Alex paints using lavender spike oil as a solvent, which gives her work that soft watercolour like look despite being oil paintings.
I wanted to switch to something that's a bit more eco-friendly and non-carcinogenic. Lavender spike oil is interesting because it is an oil, but it acts like a solvent - and it smells so good. Prior to using it I kinda loathed painting honesty, I was using different mediums, heaps of colours and overworking my pictures. Trying the lavender for the first time cleared the path of painting for me I believe. With it, I began to see how I could make painting work for me. It's smooth like an oil and bitey like a solvent. Nowadays, I go for a bit of an underpainting look because when you work on something too much it starts to become a bit of a bastard of what it was. I treat my work more like drawings than paintings. It's what works for me and always has.
Also, you know, I'm a bit woo woo. It feels like I adorn the work with something a bit more positive for me, something that suits me more. Now the act of painting has a little bit of an aromatherapy experience to it. I suppose all painters would agree on that, it's just that mine doesn’t give me a pounding headache anymore, thank god. It’s a healthier way of going about painting, because I want to do it long term. I also like the sort of ritual of having the smell there, and it's my smell.
I keep my colour so limited as to two being the most colours I'll have in a picture. The colours that I pick are not just for the visual look that they have, but how they interact with the lavender spike oil. When they're layered heavily, they basically go to a black or a really dark version of that colour, and can also be diluted really lightly - so I get a full tonal range in the colour, but I only need to use one.
To me Alex’s work feels like it’s concerned with femininity and childhood. It brings a great feeling of nostalgia for me. The crystal glasses evoke memories of the glasses in my parent’s cabinet that we only use on special occasions. The imagery of horses and dogs, remind me of all the pictures on my walls and the books I had about animals growing up. It just feels very nostalgic in both the imagery and the style with which she paints.
My work is so fuelled by subconscious attractions, I'm always scanning the world, waking and dreaming, waiting to see something that makes my brain itch. This itch tells me to paint whatever it is that's itchy until it tells me to stop. I don't usually know why that particular thing is the one at that point in time, but in hindsight I can see that my subconscious attractions usually represent an area of my life well worth thinking about. I always think if this thing wants me to paint it, maybe it's trying to tell me something. I paint not just to get the itch out, but to decorate my world with pictures of what I think is beautiful. They are symbolic mementos of ways that I have felt and each of them I treat a bit like a wish in a way. Like Armoured (2024)- is a wish of protection. The shell and pearl speak to the constant swing between vulnerably and self-preservation. I am neither the shell nor the pearl, but I am both. Protection is the main theme of my work, or the main wish that I put into each picture at the moment. They're very femme-coded and with the way that the world tends to be, I always wish for my protection as a woman and the protection of others harmed by the patriarchy.
But the nostalgia part is interesting because my biggest source for my style and aesthetic interests are my parents. Both my parents are very, very decorative in things that they make. My mum can make anything and do it very well. My dad used to sculpt and make swords. The work is nostalgic for me in that it is inspired by them, but that won't be the case for others. I also do like all the same things I liked as a little kid so it's my nostalgia, but also yours.
My longer-term vision that I have for myself is to have a volume of work from over the years, and be able to look back on it and start understanding it retrospectively. I know if my work is subconsciously motivated, then it will start telling its own story. This symbolism will be further unveiled in its volume over time. That's what I want to see - what it's telling me, because it is such a big part of my life. But art making is kind of elusive anyway. I'm curious what its role is in my life, from its perspective.
Alex is continuing to build a catalogue of her work at the moment and is aiming to have a solo show hopefully before the end of 2025. You can find her work on her Instagram and get in contact with her via email.
