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I live in Oxford and returned to full time painting in September 2000. Here you will find a résumé of my work. If you want to make a comment please contact me. |
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I studied painting and photography with Colin Walker as part of a B.Ed course in Art and Art History at Coventry College of Education. Colin was an inspirational teacher and he did much to instil in me a deep respect for looking, understanding and making. 1969 "Keresley Pit" The Herbert Art Gallery,
Coventry 1970 'Mrs Phillips' Scunthorpe Art Gallery
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1975 After 4 years of successful teaching and rapid promotion in Oxford I held my
first exhibition in Oxford. 1975 Oxford Playhouse Gallery |
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 1974 Clovelly Central owned by S&L Shurlock |
 1973 Port Isaac owned by M Graves |
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| 1972 Clovelly
owned by Jo Hagger 1973 The Cliff, Mevagissey owned by Mr& Mrs D. Rowley 1975 Northcliffe, Port Isaac owned by M&B Makin 1974 Rocks, Mevagissey Bay owned by P O'Driscoll 1974 Victoria Square, Bristol owned by H&S Hagger 1974 Royal York Crescent owned by Mr&Mrs Brett 1974 Ostrich Inn, Bristol owned by Mr&Mrs Nelson 1975 Glenridding Shops 1 owned by P&E Skinner 1975 Glenridding Shops 2 owned by Martin Gent 1975 From Bardwell Road to Park Town owned by Mr&Mrs Brett |
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| Review. The Oxford Times 28th July 1975 Although Wendy Skinner Smith ? has been teaching art .... during the past four years, I do not recollect having previously seen any of her work shown in the Oxford area. It is therefore a considerable pleasure to encounter painting of such powerful individuality. There is a gusto about the way this artist attacks her subjects and this can rub off with more than a casual impact on an appreciative viewer. To this gusto she weds a very confident painting technique and all her pictures have the firm flesh of the paint supported by the strong backbone of her obviously assured draughtmanship. Both the firm foundation and the vigorous handling can be seen to specially impressive effect in her townscapes of Bristol. Anyone who knows that city well will realise how truthfully this artist has caught its particular architectural qualities. The Bristolian flavour is especially well caught in the steeply designed composition of Victoria Square in which line and mass are sharply stated and in which also the physical weight of the buildings can be strongly felt. The same qualities declare themselves in the Clifton Houses and Orchard Inn…strong rich brown tones in the first and cool grey in the latter used to potent effect. Miss Skinner Smith has also been very fruitfully inspired by her Cornish subjects at Port Isaac and Mevagissey and in these, again, she has caught with impressive fidelity, the particular qualities of Cornish geological formations and the light and climatic conditions of this Western world. She also shows several Lake District and Oxford subjects of a like integrity. F.W. |
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1976 Oxford Playhouse Gallery
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| 1976
Pennine Way–Hawes
owned by Helen Naylor Review. The Oxford Times 29th
Nov 1976 1977 I worked in Adult Education and did voluntary work in North Oxford.
1977
Northmoor Wood, Great Arden Moor
owned by Barry Speight (Australia) |
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1978 I returned to teaching, part-time We also took on an allotment near Port Meadow and thus I began on what has become another passion - gardening. My gardening is as organised as my painting and the grid of my allotment is not unlike the grid that often seeks to dominate my paintings!. 1979 One temporary post turned into another at our local comprehensive Upper
School and in 1979 I began what was to be a post lasting twenty years. This school became an exciting and dominant part of my life, and
was for many years an inspirational and demanding environment. I
did some of my best teaching here and will always remember it with enormous
pride and affection. I continued to paint when I could, although
a family, an increasingly demanding job and an allotment needed a lot
of juggling. I continued to draw and paint when I could and managed
to fit in a few commissioned works but these were few and far between. |
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1978 The Lake at Worcester College owned by H&S Hagger |
 1979 Geranium owned by P&R Singer |
 1980 Daisies owned by J&A Eckersley |
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 1981 Chapel Stile owned by the artist |
 1982 Hanging Basket owned by the artist |
 1983 The Living Room owned by the artist |
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1978
Red Roofs, Kingston Blount
commission Helen Naylor 1986 Exhibition at Oxford Town Hall |
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Willows on loan to H Hagger |
Friars Entry owned by J&A Eckersley |
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1996 The Florence Trip |
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The Florence Trip (1996) Owned by the artist |
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1999 Manhattan 2002
Exhibition at Oxford's new Arts Pub 'Far From the Madding Crowd' 13
May - 9 June |
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 20001 New York MOMA 1 Private collection |
 2000 New York Reflections 2 Private collection |
 2000 New York Reflections 3 Private collection |
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 2001 New York Metropolitan Roof Available |
 2001 New York MOMA 3 Private collection |
 2001 New York MOMA 4 Private collection |
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 2002 New York Reflections 7 Private collection |
2001 New York Reflections 4 Private collection |
 2002 New York Reflections 5 Private collection |
2002 New York Reflections 6 Private collection |
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2002 New York MOMA 5 Available |
 2002 New York Reflections 8 Available |
 2002 New York MOMA 6 Available |
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The paintings, all done in oil on board, were conceived out of Wendy's reaction to Manhattan, when she confronted this amazing city for the first time a couple of years ago. Although the works depict the effects of light upon windows, and the tricks such reflections play, they also say much about the vulnerability of such buildings which, as we all know, were to pay a dreadful price for their monumental size last September. Wendy says the paintings are all about ambiguity. You see these tall, proud, solid buildings against the blue that permeates New York and assume they are strong - yet they are not. She has captured their assumed strength set against their vulnerability. We see faces at windows. We see reflections. We see grids. We also see the way those reflections capture the reflection of the reflections, fragments of a transitory world trapped in a giant frame. Distorted though they are by sunlight, these reflections display the complexity of the city below while capturing the strange beauty of its buildings which tower into the sky.
I started working on Reflections on Oxford. Often the paintings use a window as a frame and a grid. The Nuffield work twisted this format as the familiar image of the spire was sitting so starkly reflected in the lily pond that I left it to look after itself and let the lilies, lichen and wall assert their claim. I like the fragmentation this provokes which makes you look again. The Ede and Ravenscroft to Lincoln Library was a difficult balance with the suit, window frame and church portico battling it out to make a new whole. The Old Bank and St Mary the Virgin just entwined itself into existence. 2003 "It reminds one of Piero della Francesca. It's the precision
and clarity of colour alongside the mathematical construction" 2003 "Ede and Ravenscroft to Lincoln Library" 119 High St, Oxford 2005 Exhibition in The Library Gallery, University
of Warwick 18 April to 6 May
2006 Illustrations for Signal Books 'The Cities of the Imagination' series.
London 2007 Illustrations for Signal Books 'The Cities of the Imagination' series.
Zagreb,
Phnom Penh 2008 Illustrations for Signal Books 'The Cities of the Imagination' series.
Belgrade 2009 Open studio in Artweeks - The Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival 2010 Open studio in Artweeks - The Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival 2011 Open studio in Artweeks - The Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival 2012 Open studio in Artweeks - The Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival 2013 Open studio in Artweeks - The Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival 2014 Oxford International Art Fair 7/8/9 February 2014 Open studio in Artweeks - The Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival 2015 Open studio in Artweeks - The Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival |
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