ABOUT ME 

Irene Smit – Artist Profile

As a child I loved to be outdoors and paid close attention while admiring the beauty of Nature. I have been creative all my life, paying attention to detail others may miss. I loved drawing from a young age. Growing up I had art as a subject at high school which enabled me to experiment with various techniques.

I studied fine arts after finishing school, but I quickly formed the opinion that it was not a feasible career choice, so I quit after my first year of study. I started my first job in the Paper Manufacturing industry gaining knowledge in Plant Maintenance and fast forward 22 years am now a Business Systems Integrator in the Oil and Gas Industry.

Before my Father passed away in 2020, he made me realise that I need to embrace the amazing talent I have been blessed with. Dad was my biggest fan and kept on raving about how fantastic he thought my work was. Dad encouraged me to do my first exhibition and asked me when I will be doing a portrait of him. Of course, we just laughed it off, but I never realized that would be the last time we would have a conversation.

In honor of Dad, I have taken the opportunity to exhibit a small collection of my work on “The Emerging Artist Wall” sponsored by Access Radio Taranaki 104.4 fm in the Top Town Cinema Complex (Map). The exhibit runs from the 27 February until 30 March 2021. This is my first attempt to display my work in Public. I am hoping that this first step of exhibiting my work will open the door to becoming a successful Full-time artist in future.