‘The Year Swells’ was painted from a memory of a painting (also painted from memory) of a local walk, where a river flows in winter, but for the rest of the year is left dry. The paths the stream has carved fill with beech leaves every autumn creating an effect of rivers of gold running through the forest floor. As the beechnuts swell, so does the river as the rains come down and turn the woodland colours black, orange and evergreen.

Ruth Helen Smith is an artist based in Devon who paints loosely figurative landscapes often from observation, en plein air. While the works speak of the place and the moment of creation, the paintings act as ‘inner landscapes of the mind’, creating contemplative spaces for the viewer. Philosophical and Art Historical inquiry play an important role in Smith's practice, as she explores ideas around existence, materiality, and meaning through a thick use of oil paint, colour and tone. Much of her work is imbued with a sense of there being something beyond, just out of sight, that we might glimpse but can feel it looking back.

Ruth Helen Smith (b. 1994) is a Devon-based artist, curator and writer. She studied at The Courtauld Institute of Art, where she gained a BA in History of Art and an MA with Distinction, and at The Heatherley School of Fine Art. She founded Ruth Smith Gallery and its associated Art Residency Programme, and co-founded Red Mud Arts. Her exhibitions include the Ruth Borchard Prize exhibition at Piano Nobile, London, and shows at Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Limekiln Gallery and Vivienne Roberts Projects. Her residencies include painting the construction of Battersea Power Station over a period of more than a year. She also lectures and writes on art history and teaches painting and drawing.