Sublime Smibert
Photo supplied
Tony Smibert working in his watercolour studio.
By Wai Lin Coultas
DELORAINE-BASED TONY Smibert was among four artists highly commended by judges of the 2019 Hadley Art Prize, for his landscape Tao Sublime 5.
Presented by Hadley’s Orient Hotel and now in its third year, the prize celebrates contemporary landscape art. Indigenous artist Carbiene MacDonald Tjangala, of Papunya in the Northern Territory, was awarded the $100 000 Hadley Art Prize. Tony’s fellow Tasmanians Philip Wolfhagen and Faridah Cameron, along with Betty Pula Morton from the Northern Territory, were the other highly commended artists.
Announced in July, these five artists were chosen from the 30 finalists hung in the exhibition from approximately 600 entries Australia-wide.
Tony’s acrylic on canvas dwells upon ‘Tasmania’s precious pencil pines as a living connection to landscape and time before European arrival: dreaming their ancient dream’.
The judges were particularly taken with this ‘expressive, dreamlike work [that] portrayed the weather, the atmosphere and a very particular sense of place in an intriguing medium’.
Tony attributes his artistic style to a whole range of influences, combining holistic qualities of Taoism with a Turneresque sublime romanticism.
He began as a traditional water colourist. Time spent in Japan and his passion for Aikido influenced him to move into minimal works of art.
When he became increasingly fascinated with English water colour, his pursuit of JMW Turner’s techniques led him to discover the philosophy of Alexander Cozens, taking artists away from precise representations of the scene before them.
‘Responding to the sublime, I am referencing nature’s spirit rather than its appearance,’ Tony expands.
The European idea of the sublime resonates with what the Japanese call ten shi jin or ‘heaven, earth, man’ – our relationship to the cosmos, to the Tao and the idea that nature is deeply significant. Tony’s paintings allude to feelings of awe or terror that we might experience in nature.
The landscape in Tao Sublime 5 is imagined from Tony’s response to experience, and not of a particular spot in Tasmania at all.
‘A painting done this way creates itself. Starting with an empty canvas, I might have a sense of place in mind, and then, very quickly, it appears,’ Tony explains. ‘What seemed important to me late last year when I painted it, is now even more so given how many pencil pines were damaged by fires over summer.’
Many of Tony’s works are painted with very few brush strokes. He uses watercolour techniques to paint an acrylic wash on a larger scale, drawing inspiration from abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock.
Tony has exhibited across Australia and overseas. He is a Visiting Artist Researcher at the Tate Gallery and author of a number of well-known books on watercolour. His latest book, Turner’s Apprentice will be published in early 2020.
Tony Smibert Studio Gallery is at 179 Mole Creek Road in Deloraine. Visitors are always welcome. Just call 03 6362 2474 or email tony@smibert. com.
