Manchester, UK-based abstract expressionist painter

I’ve never looked for a label to describe who I am or what I make. I follow instinct, letting emotion, memory, and chance shape the work until something unexpected takes form.

My paintings are traces of that process; bold, intuitive, and always reaching for the unknown.

IAN RAYER-SMITH
My Space

Located on the outskirts of Manchester, my main studio sits inside an old mill that carries almost 150 years of history. Set among other businesses, the studio stands deliberately away from other artists and is where most of my work comes to life. It’s my safe space. My place to truly be me. I go in early, put music on, keep to myself, and let the day belong to the work.

I moved here during the pandemic, out of a smaller space I had long outgrown. Suddenly there was room to think bigger, so I did. A large studio gives me a kind of freedom I would struggle without now. This is where the bigger, more energetic work comes to life. The smaller, more intimate paintings tend to come from my other studios, which carry a different energy entirely.

It is a big, double height space. Pillars, old pipes, a skylight that fills the room with light. And while the window could be cleaner, the light falls perfectly. Softened, a little worn, and exactly what I need.
My Process

I don't have any fixed process or technique. I'm always working in many different ways. It enables me to combine different techniques. I'll leave myself open to discovering more.

This means that with the paintings I have in my studio sometimes something happens and then I realise that it can work on another painting that I have on the go. And so, in a way, a lot of my inspiration comes from my previous work.

Painters have always borrowed from the past but should produce art for the era in which they live. For me, inspiration comes from so many different places and experiences. Over the years I’ve been inspired by the Abstract Expressionist movement, and I love expressive painting. Also, and highly importantly, personal experience counts for a lot - by working in an unguarded expressive way I find that the unexpected can emerge.
'If there's no unity in your work, then you've deliberately made yourself into that kind of person. You don't want that unity in your work. You've made some kind of satisfactory arrangement with your culture'.

Milton Resnick