David Smith brings a new exhibition to Ballina Arts Centre

Mayo-born artist David Smith is currently exhibiting a new series of paintings titled ‘Don’t Forget To Remember’ at Ballina Arts Centre, exploring themes of perception and memory.

Originally from Castlebar, Smith has lived and worked across Ireland and Asia, spending more than a decade in Hong Kong before returning west to settle in Sligo. His work draws deeply from his Mayo upbringing while also absorbing influences from Asian ink painting, photography, abstraction, and Zen philosophy.

“I suppose when you grow up in Mayo, you have a certain feel for landscape,” Smith says. “That always stuck with me.”

Like many artists, Smith says his work is deeply connected to his past and present life.

“I guess any artist’s work is usually a combination of all their previous experiences in life, from their childhood up to where they are currently. That is exactly the case with me as well.”

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After leaving Castlebar, Smith studied fine art in Galway, Sligo, and Belfast before embarking on what he initially thought would be a short stint abroad. He taught painting and drawing at university level while also exhibiting.

Big impact

“Living in a super dense city, tiny apartments, with constant noise, you really become aware of the absence of nature,” he explains. “That tension made a big impact on the paintings I make.”

Smith often describes his paintings as attempts to capture not a place itself, but the feeling of remembering one.

“A lot of my work comes from memory,” he says. “You experience things, and then you let them go. As a painter, you’re trying to recapture something, but you realise you actually can’t.”

Smith works exclusively with oil on wood panels, never canvas. This allows him to build layers, pour glazes, and let surfaces crack naturally, mimicking the way memories fade and fragment.

“I’m into the fact that you can’t hold an experience clearly,” he says. “You kind of have to let it go.”

The title ‘Don’t Forget to Remember’ carries its own personal story. It was inspired by a phrase Smith’s granddad used to say when he was leaving his house in Bofin as a child: “If you don’t write, send a letter.”

“It felt like an Irish saying,” Smith explains. “I wanted something with a bit of flavour, something connected to memory.”

The exhibition features work made largely within the past six months, alongside a small number of earlier pieces.

Speaking about a painting in his current exhibition at Ballina Arts Centre, David says ‘Lakeshore Sunrise Haze’ is a fairly typical naming for his work.

“I tend not to mention direct locations,” he says. “To me, it’s not really about that at all. It’s more a vague impression of a place.”

Sunsets appear repeatedly throughout the exhibition, an image Smith traces back to memories of seeing them in different parts of the world.

“I guess I’m a little bit obsessed by them in some ways, mostly through memories of seeing them in Hong Kong, haze and pollution and how they look quite different to where you might see them somewhere else. So that has kind of stuck with me.”

Among the works are two paintings of horses standing in a misty field. This was never something Smith intended to paint.

“They just sort of appeared,” he says. “They reminded me of hiking when I was younger, seeing horses in different places. Things just happen.”

Another standout piece is ‘Match Burn Sequence’, which is seven wood panels and the tracking of a brief flare and the extinction of a flame. The piece reflects Smith’s interest in breath, focus, and impermanence, ideas he traces back to an early engagement with martial arts and Zen practices.

“There’s a moment of focus, and then it bleeds away again,” he says. “That’s always in the paintings.”

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Influences

DESPITE the international influences on his work, Smith’s connection to Mayo remains central. He continues to return regularly, where he photographs the landscape.

“When I’d come home, it would take three or four nights before my ears stopped ringing,” he recalls. “You realise how much silence matters.”

Ultimately, Smith insists his work is meant to remain open-ended.

“I want the paintings to be subjective,” he says. “They might remind you of somewhere, but you can’t quite put your finger on it.”

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‘Don’t Forget To Remember’ runs at Ballina Arts Centre until March 14. The gallery is open from 10 am to 6 pm, Tuesday to Saturday.

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