Studio Sunday artist Emily Mae Smith was born in Austin, Texas and is now based in Brooklyn, New York. As a rising contemporary artist, Smith is known for her highly conceptual figurative paintings that use metaphorical imagery to explore themes of female representation and psychology.

Smith’s art studio looks warm and bright. Though we can’t see much of it here, the artist appears to be hard at work on a painting. I find it rather interesting that Smith seems to be working on the painting while it is hung at a regular viewing height on the wall – I wonder if this is a new painting, or if she’s in fact touching up  and older work that has been hanging there for a while.

It’s always nice to see a table full of paintbrushes in an artist’s studio. Smith looks prepared for any type of brush work with the number of brushes she has propped up in cans to her left. Even with this run-of-the-mill arrangement, there’s something vaguely cheerful about all these brushes standing at attention, waiting for the perfect moment.

The homey, warm look of the studio space reminds me of that of Fia Cielen, and the flowers in the foreground almost hint at more massive, overpowering floral arrangements like those in the studio space of Claire Basler.

Smith obtained her MFA from Columbia University in New York City. Her artwork is represented by galleries in New York, Glasgow, and Brussels. 

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