Chris Smith

Chris Smith began painting and drawing as a child and art has always been his primary interest and pursuit. At sixteen, he started at Leeds College of Art but after completing his pre-diploma, a friend introduced him to the Isles of Scilly and he did not complete his course. Instead, he spent the next decade travelling as an itinerant worker between Scilly and Europe. At that time, he adopted watercolour as his medium, often financing his travels from the sale of his work.

In 1980 he settled on St Marys in the Isles of Scilly enjoying the simpler lifestyle as much as the landscape. He opened his studio and became a full-time artist in 1986. An accomplished artist, over the years he has worked using different mediums and styles but all his work is instantly recognisable and he has a loyal following among regular visitors to Scilly.

Recent seascapes in acrylic have "shown the wilder energy and movement of the sea or have captured the shoreline under changing skies". Although much of his work is figurative, he is also passionate about abstract expressionism.

A few years ago, Chris took one step closer to retirement and closed his Old Town Studio and in 2022 he moved back to the mainland. His work is now exclusively for sale in galleries, predominantly Tamarisk Gallery.