Paul Smith
Paul Smith is a full-time gallery artist, living and working on the edge of the Peak District National Park. All of his figurative ceramic sculptures are unique one-offs, hand-built in paperclay using a variety of different methods. The work is in a bold and semi-abstract style, with graceful sweeping curves and simplified details.
Paul’s work is wide-ranging, encompassing re-interpretations of European folk tales and the people and animals that populate them. Goldilocks has made peace with the bears and Red Riding Hood has grown up to be a confident femme fatale who entrances the Wolf.
Work by Paul Smith is solidly rooted in the figurative tradition. He particularly admires the work of Elie Nadelman. A Polish-born sculptor working in the earlier part of the last century, Nadelman was innovative in his wonderful sense of fluid line and form, influenced in turn by American folk art.