The Art of Oceanography: Interview with Dom Smith
Dom Smith is both an artist and an Oceanographer. Although he was born and raised in central London, he currently lives in Bermuda, where he spends much of his time aboard research vessels in the North Atlantic. As both a scientist and an artist, he’s familiar with both creative inspiration and the analytical approach to science. He’s forging a unique career that explores the intersection between the two worlds. We’re fascinated by his unique perspective of the natural world, and the work he creates using only ink, water, paper and a pen.
Q. How would you describe your work?
My art is primarily focused on natural forms, processes, objects and organisms. It is definitely a product of where my creative brain meets my scientific brain, as I’m also an oceanographer and that scientific, analytic perspective certainly spills over into my art. I’m heavily focused on detail, structure and line and where all these meet more natural or random processes such as the way ink interacts with water and how they might spill and absorb across paper or canvas.
Q. Where are you from, and where did the passion for art come from?
I grew up predominantly in London, though as a family we would escape to our little cottage in the foothills of the Black Mountains in South Wales at any possible weekend or holiday. My parents have since moved there permanently, so whenever I come back from a stint working abroad, that is where I go.
My love for all things creative, and drawing especially, I suppose comes from my dad who is a really talented draughtsman, though, like me, often struggles to find confidence setting pen or pencil to paper. My brother also draws and sketches, and I was always inspired by his creations. That artistic surrounding was then allowed to develop at school, where I was super fortunate to have access to amazing resources and studio spaces.
My work today reflects and continues from themes established at age 17 or 18 where I would seek out nature, landscape and micro-adventures around London, its parks and especially its hidden waterways, and document these escapes in my art.
Dom’s creative inspiration first came from micro-adventures in central London, seeking out nature, parks and hidden waterways.
Q. What’s the process involved in creating a piece?
I guess it all starts with really looking. My detailed studies of gnarled sections within weathered old wood comes from an ever growing collection of found objects, off-cuts, driftwood and a library of photos from woodland wanders. I’m always keeping an eye out for characterful corners of trees which draw you in as more and more details become apparent.
My expanses of sky- and seascapes are more like composite memories of countless hours spent watching the horizon. Sailing and my work on board oceanographic research vessels affords me plenty of time to gaze and absorb these vast open spaces. Perhaps rather than trying to capture a moment of fluid time in its exactness, I just aim to guide ink and water in their natural mimicry of ocean and weather systems to form some semblance of the mood as I watched that squall pass by or that swell slowly build over the course of a blustery day.
Q. Who has inspired you?
Within the realms of art there are a number of people that have left an impression on me. The first I remember to do so was Goya, with his stark and often horrific etchings exploring the shadow side of human nature and the atrocities of war. Although brutal in nature, the mark making and the impact of what can be accomplished in black and white left an indelible mark on me. Totally different in style, I have loved Wolfgang Bloch’s ethereal surfscapes since I first discovered them. John Knapp-fisher is another artist whose work I totally fell in love with at a young age. Based in Pembrokeshire, where I also first fell in love with the sea on our summer holidays, his love of the sea and the landscape seemed to reflect my own feelings and I have felt bonded to his work ever since. He seemed to have a deep understanding of the mood and soul of that landscape, a connection which I really hope to find somewhere one day. Finally, my favourite artist of all is Norman Ackroyd. I don’t think anyone captures the mystique and magic of our coastlines better than him.
Beyond the world of art, most of the people who inspire me are adventurers; be it climbers and mountaineers, sailors or explorers. I also have a lot of respect for people who find a way to straddle multiple interests and disciplines, mixing science and exploration or art and adventure. Those who come to mind are people such as Frank Hurley who photographed Shackleton’s Endurance expedition to Antarctica and more contemporary figures like Renan Ozturk, who is a climber and mountaineer as well as an incredible artist and film maker, perhaps best known for the film ‘Meru’.
Dom has been inspired by seascape artists such as Wolfgang Bloch.
Q. When was the first time you felt connected to the ocean? How did it make you feel?
If I think about it, I can trace the trajectory of my life, and my decision to live and work in, on and around the sea, back to those summer holidays in Pembrokeshire.
I think those summers, between the ages of 7-10 must be some of the most care-free and happy times of a lot of people’s lives. At that age we’re old enough to have some independence and young enough to have very few real worries. Also time just seems to pass differently at that age, at a slightly different tempo than it does now, meaning a summer feels like a year and two weeks at the seaside maybe feels more like two months. A lot of the decisions I have made since then have simply been shaped by an intention, whether I realised it or not, to follow that feeling of adventure, of play and of space. Nowhere have I found those feelings to be more present than when surrounded by water.
Q. How has the ocean influenced your lifestyle and what's important to you?
I suppose I have answered that to some degree in the previous question… but then as much as many of us would love it to be, our life can’t simply be a continuous summer holiday by the beach! So, as I’ve grown up, I’ve stumbled my way into some things and consciously set goals towards others which ensure that I keep finding my way back to the sea and to wild places. The most metamorphic of those perhaps, was my decision to study oceanography. I don’t think anyone at my central London school had ever gone to study oceanography at uni, and I don’t think anyone has since but the river of people, interests and knowledge it has led me down has steered me irrevocably away from the city and towards some incredible coasts around the world.
Oceanography has allowed Dom lots of travel experience. As well as residing in Miami, Newfoundland and Bermuda, he’s also spent many weeks at sea in the North Atlantic.
Q. Do you think your relationship with nature or the ocean has influenced the art you create?
Without doubt yes. It was the more pragmatic/logical side of my brain that decided at age 17 to study oceanography at uni rather than to try for an art degree. But my creative brain is always ticking along in the background, and naturally it is the sea, in all her moods, and nature and all her processes that inspire and interest me the most. So, inevitably my creative side wants to try and translate those feelings and the things I see into some sort of visual art.
Q. Do you think the presence of water influences the creative process? Is it easier to find a creative flow?
For me I think creativity doesn’t come directly from an association or proximity to water. Instead it’s the mindfulness or tranquillity brought on with the presence of water and the desire to understand and convey some of the complexity of spirit, patterns and light that drives my creativity and once I overcome the hurdle of getting into the creative headspace then the flow comes naturally as soon as the pen or ink starts moving.
Dom finds inspiration in the tiny peculiarities and intricate beauties of nature and her processes
Q. How can you see your art progressing in the future? What themes/styles are you interested in? What do you want to explore?
I have always wanted to explore the intersection of art and science. I think there’s a lot of fascinating stuff that can be done in that space. Perhaps most importantly there is the possibility to better convey what goes on in the scientific realm – which, to be honest, is so dry and unapproachable for the vast majority of people – and as a result, I believe has directly contributed to the distrust and shunning of scientific research, knowledge and fact in recent decades.
With this in mind, I’ve been inspired by Olafur Eliasson’s work recently, and in particular, his ‘Glacial Currents’ series, where chunks of dislodged glacial ice from Greenland are left to melt and mix with pigments and paints on paper, producing organic swirls of colour whilst raising awareness of the changing landscape of our polar regions.
Q. Anything else to add?
I just want to say thanks for the questions, it’s always pretty interesting to take a guided dive into your own psyche now and then! So thanks for the excuse to sit down and do that, and sorry if my thoughts are a bit jumbled – I’ve been writing these answers from the middle of the Atlantic on a pretty hectic research cruise! Finally just wanted to say thanks to you guys in Cornwall – you all have a sense of place and an appreciation of ‘Home’ that I think is pretty special and inspiring in its own way.
Like many artists, Dom finds that the mindfulness and tranquility of water helps the creative process.
