Celebrated New Zealand artist, Michael Smither, was born and raised in New Plymouth, on the coastline and under the mountain, both of which have been a constant source of imagery in his paintings.
Artist, musician, conservationist – painter, sculptor and printmaker, Michael Smither is as varied in his interests as he is in the images he makes. He is one of New Zealand’s most robust, challenging and colourful artists, whose work is in every major collection.
Smither paints what he sees, always imbuing his vision with a luminous sense of the power of observation.
Parnell Gallery has proudly represented Michael Smither with his limited edition prints for many years now. You can view our available works by Michael Smither here.
[From The Good Oil about this episode:]
Michael Smither was recently interviewed on the Good Oil podcast, which is dedicated to long form conversations with Aotearoa / New Zealand painters about their lives and practices.
In this episode I visit Michael Smither at his home and studio in the Coromandel.
Michael is one of Aotearoa’s most accomplished painters, exhibited his first solo show in 1961, he is now into the 7th decade of his practice. His work is held in numerous public and private collections including Te Papa Tonga-rewa, The Fletcher Collection, The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and The Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Michael has received several awards and honours, including being the recipient of the 1970 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship and he was appointed to the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004 for services to the arts. He has also had several books about him published, including the comprehensive and excellent ‘Michael Smither – Painter’ by Trish Gribben.
There are images of the paintings that we talk about on The Good Oil Michael Smither Instagram Post for your reference.
You’ll hear Michael talk about the importance and influence of the 12 Stations of The Cross on him, and then his rendering of it for his then local church, St Josephs in Taranaki, poaching fish and painting political protests with Ralph Hotere, his love for English painter Sir Stanley Spencer and his influence on his practice, the relationship between his landscape paintings and his portrait paintings and the new, and I must say very impressive, series of portrait paintings of his Dr, Dr David Wilson.
