Audrey Smith
I trained as an illustrator at Stockport Art School and Birmingham college of Art. Initially, I used watercolour and drawing inks and latterly have moved on to acrylic inks. I started painting industrial and city landscapes while in Birmingham and continued when I moved back to Manchester. Painting was also concerned with the people who inhabited the cityscape and tended to capture a moment or event. I have a great interest in Liverpool and its architecture and have lived in Runcorn relatively near to the city for 30 years. Later work has embraced general landscape, with particular interest in Norfolk, the area around Whitby and the Lleyn Peninsular in Wales. The opportunity arose to present an exhibition at Norton Priory near my home, based on the priory and its association with pilgrimage. I found a link between Norton Priory and Bardsey Island and when invited to join a small group putting on an exhibition called 'Wales Rediscovered,' it seemed a natural progression for me to paint the churches on the pilgrim route down the Lleyn Peninsular to Bardsey Island, a place of pilgrimage for centuries. It became a very personal experience. I now wish to further explore that particular theme in painting.