Artists

Artist of the Month, June 2025 – Saffron Monks-Smith

2nd June, 2025

Saffron Monks-Smith is our Artist of the Month for June 2025.

Alley Way Gleam, Gouache and oil paint on MDF, 2020, courtesy of the artist Saffron Monks-Smith

Saffron Monks-Smith is an award winning artist who graduated from Ulster University in June 2018 with an undergraduate degree in Fine Art, specialising in Printmaking. In 2020 she attained a Masters degree in Fine Art at Ulster University, specialising in painting. This change of practice allowed her to expand on the idea of memory and atmosphere and influenced a change of emphasis in her practice from figurative work to urban and suburban landscapes.

Alley Way Gleam is part of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland art collection. It is one of a series of works originally exhibited at The MAC in Belfast, that explore the hide and seek relationship between light and dark and how this can affect our sensory perception of a location. These works demonstrate the artist’s fascination with the everyday and the elements of atmosphere that shape whether we feel comforted or frightened, with the light as a signifier, a message or direction, and weather acting as physical presence and driving force.

Further information about Saffron and her work can be found at saffron2017.wordpress.com