ABOUT
Sian Smith is a Glasgow-based artist working primarily in oil paint. She studied Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone, Scotland before completing an MFA at the New York Academy of Art in 2018. Alongside her studio practice, she has worked on several film projects—first with Lynne Ramsay in 2010 and later creating paintings for Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch—experiences that deepened her interest in light, detail, and atmosphere.
Since 2017, Smith has painted on unstretched, unprimed chiffon, favouring its delicate movement and the way light passes through it, allowing her images to hover within the fabric like fleeting worlds. Her work focuses on natural light, using thin layers of oil paint and leaving spaces where physical forms would usually sit, allowing subjects to feel embedded within the fabric. Rooted in the quiet landscapes of Scotland, her paintings aim to create gentle moments of pause—spaces to breathe, reflect, and linger.
