Artists » Paul Smith 

Paul is a full-time gallery artist, living and working on the edge of the Peak District National Park. His figurative sculptures re-interpret fairytales and fables for a contemporary grown-up audience. His version of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, for instance, has a modern twist; she is presented not as an innocent victim, but as a confident femme fatale. The style is bold and semi-abstract with graceful sweeping curves and simplified details. He strives for a dream-like and contemplative quality to his work.

There is often an element of dark humour in his work, nothing is as it first appears and nothing can be taken for granted. He uses children's stories as the vehicle to explore, in terms of adult-oriented concerns, the universal themes raised; love and jealousy, duplicity and trust.

Paul's work is solidly rooted in the figurative tradition. Of all the artists of the past he particularly admires the work of Elie Nadelman; a Polish-born sculptor working in the earlier part of the last century, he was innovative in his wonderful sense of fluid line and form, influenced by American folk art.