Samantha Keely Smith works with images that surface and fade. Figures appear for a moment, then slip back into layered fields of color. Her new show, “In Between,” brings together paintings shaped by dreams and the small shifts that happen when a thought turns into something visible. On view through December 13 at Jane Lombard Gallery, the exhibition moves through states that feel private, atmospheric, and slightly outside the everyday.

Your paintings move between figuration and something more atmospheric. When we look at the works, it feels like the figure appears for a moment and slips away again. How do you decide when a figure dissolves into the environment?

Samantha Keely Smith: The final state of the figures in the paintings is largely determined by the somewhat unpredictable nature of my painting process. I start the figures as traditional figure paintings but only allow myself one day to get it to the point where I think it’s representational enough to give it up to the fate of solvents and scraping, since I need the oil paint to still be quite wet at that point. I like the challenge of reacting to the resulting changes and destruction of the figure.

At a certain point the painting dictates the path ahead.

I think this unpredictable process is also in keeping with the overall feeling of movement and shifting ground in the works. For example, there have been paintings where I originally had the intention of having two or more figures, but only one survived at the end. So part of my painting process is intentional and part of it is chance and happy accidents. At a certain point the painting dictates the path ahead. The same can be said of the paintings without figures—in that the process ultimately steers the direction of the work after the first couple of layers. I think of it as a nod to the unexpected and uncontrollable nature of life in general.

You’ve mentioned dreams and internal landscapes as starting points. When a dream stays with you, what is usually the element that holds on long enough to enter a painting?

Keely Smith: Visually it’s usually the light and some of the colors that will stay with me from a dream. But more importantly it’s the emotional and psychological impact of the dream that will drive the painting.

The surfaces in these works feel heavy with layers. Do you build the paintings from a clear idea, or do the forms shape up as you work with the material?

Keely Smith: Yes, I do work in many layers, and part of the reason for that is that I am starting from ideas and images that are quite nebulous, since they are inspired by the subconscious. It takes a while for the painting to coalesce into a more concrete direction. Although the figures require more of a plan, because I have to start with a sketch, they soon become part of the shifting nature of the environment.

“In Between” comes across as a state of suspension. Were you thinking about a specific kind of transition while making these paintings?

Keely Smith: My paintings evolve over several months, and the internal psychological landscape that pushes them on shifts over that time. So I wasn’t thinking of a specific transition or emotional space while making the work.

In general I would say that the paintings explore different layers or levels of consciousness. They all depict a coming in and out of focus, shifting between the periphery of awareness and a more defined reality. Because I am working on them over the course of a few months, each painting is also influenced by the changes I’m experiencing in my life during that time.

I usually work on several paintings at once, since I work in oil and in layers, so as I go along my ideas and intentions evolve along with the paintings. But to me the paintings are all related and exist in the same “world.” They are part of an ongoing and ever-evolving story.

I’m convinced that I was an oil painter in a past life because the very first time I walked into an artist’s studio, for my first still-life painting lessons when I was 17, the smell of the paints, the turpentine, and the mediums were all so familiar to me that I got chills. It was like finally coming home after being lost for a very long time.

The line between the subconscious and my daily reality has always been very thin. Beginning as early as I can remember, maybe age 5 or 6, I would have quite intense recurring dreams about another life, where I was an adult with a family living on a farm. It was so real to me that it was a very confusing time. I didn’t grow up in a rural area or have any experience of that kind of life. I also started having dreams that were much more abstract and those dreams became the inspiration for the paintings I am doing now. 

Dreams are what ultimately lead me to art, because I saw it as a way to process those images and emotions. Painting became a necessary thing, once I found it, as it gave me a way to take hold of an overwhelming cacophony of ideas and visions, and try to make sense of them.

There is a lot of movement in these new works. Do those wave-like forms come from something specific you’re thinking about?

Keely Smith: The wave-like forms come from the dreams—where everything is in constant motion and even what appears to be solid ground is ultimately shifting. I think that over the course of many years of painting, this has become an almost unconscious movement on my part, whether with a brush or with a large painting knife.

How has your relationship to oil paint changed over the years? Are there techniques in this show that feel new for you?

Keely Smith: I like to experiment with different methods of applying and moving the paint around while I’m working, because I’m always looking for a better way to depict the ever-changing and mysterious state of being I explore in my work. So, yes perhaps there are paintings in this show with elements that are the result of some new little pivot in my process, but that’s a constantly evolving thing for me. 

I love oil paint. It’s endlessly fascinating to me. I’ve never really been interested in working in any other medium. I’m convinced that I was an oil painter in a past life because the very first time I walked into an artist’s studio, for my first still-life painting lessons when I was 17, the smell of the paints, the turpentine, and the mediums were all so familiar to me that I got chills. It was like finally coming home after being lost for a very long time.

“In Between” is on view through December 13 at Jane Lombard Gallery. Is there anything you hope visitors notice in person that is harder to see in images?

Keely Smith: I hope that visitors will have the chance to linger with the paintings and see the details that emerge after longer looking. There is a lot going on in them that doesn’t translate in photographs. Also, I think that the paintings themselves have a presence that is only palpable in person. I think that about all artworks—that they are imbued with the spirit and intentions of the artist, and by spending time with them you can connect with that spirit.

More about “In Between” is available on Jane Lombard Gallery’s page.

Featured image: Samantha Keely Smith. A Moment, 2024.
Oil on canvas, 60 × 72 in. 152.4 × 182.9 cm.