Sam Young Guest Artist for Expo ‘23

by Jackie Watson

Guest artist for this year’s Kaiapoi Art Expo is Sam Young, an emerging artist from Kaiapoi, who is gaining popularity with landscape paintings that reflect his love of nature.

An Expo favourite for the past five years Sam has been painting for around 15 years.

“I entered the Expo once years ago. It was my first opportunity to exhibit my work to the public, but then I didn't re-enter again until 2018,” says Sam.

Developing his style in the intervening years has paid off as his work now shows a consistency that the public respects and approves judging by his sell out exhibitions.

His recent Christchurch Art Show experience reflects this.

Sam explains, “Christchurch was excellent. It was the second consecutive year I've been accepted to exhibit. The opening night event was extremely busy and I was lucky enough to have buyers coming at me left and right, causing some disbelief from other artists.

“I went on to sell 17 paintings in total which I was very pleased with, especially in these tougher economic times.

“Everyone there was so supportive and it's a highlight getting to spend the weekend with other artists and hearing about the different ways everyone works.”

Sam uses the unusual medium of enamel and paints on board, not canvas.

Asked how that came about, Sam says, “ I didn't choose enamel. Enamel chose me.

By that I mean it was a happy accident. It just sort of fell into place. “I had some enamel spray cans and was mucking around doing street art stencil style paintings just for fun but I really wanted to get into nature scenes and landscapes. So I thought why don't I try doing it with the spray paint, which turned out to fit with what I was trying to achieve. “People seemed to respond to it well so I just kept going.”

The unusual technique is certainly working for him in terms of customer appeal.

“The best compliment I get is people coming up to me at shows and saying, ‘Your paintings don’t look like anyone else’s here’.

“When there is so much competition and many differing styles, that’s nice to hear,” he says. Sam also incorporates different techniques into his paintings.

“Whether that’s spraying directly onto the panel or more traditional brush work, or scraping with palette knives or using sponges or pieces of cardboard and even bicycle spokes.

“I think what I do is fairly unconventional and my tool kit reflects that,“ he says.

Because of his success as an artist, Sam is now working in his day job as an aluminium joiner for only four days a week and dedicating Fridays to painting, although he squeezes it into other parts of his week whenever he can.

As for inspiration, it mostly comes from nature.

“I get my ideas from the natural world. There’s so much complexity and beauty in nature that it’s an obvious source of fuel for the creative fire.

“I do quite a bit of hiking and now I look at everything through the eyes of an artist and how it relates back to painting. It becomes almost an automatic focus to see how trees and light and shadows are interacting with each other and how I would translate that into art,” he says.

Sam’s forest scenes are depicted from afar with detailed tree tops and layered branches but there is always light playing somewhere highlighting the verdant growth.

“I think people like my forest scenes the most, because they relate to a sense of solitude and peace with a dash of mystery and a touch of darkness that lurks within them.

“Modern life is hectic and I think people enjoy having a wilderness painting inside their home to offset that feeling a little bit,” he says.

More recently he has been playing with cloud formations in his forest scenes that hint at the melancholy aspect of life.

Sam says that he likes to create an atmospheric scene that connects with people on some level. “They can interpret that however they like and put themselves in the scene, and understand how being there would feel in a particular moment in time.”

Taking risks with his work and exploring new ways of painting has helped Sam Young fall into a niche where he’s very comfortable.