Since graduating in 2013, british contemporary artist Ian Rayer Smith has been prolific in his creating and is establishing himself as a highly accomplished and award winning artist, who explores and pushes the boundaries of contemporary painting with his own unique expressive style. His work is highly charged with emotion, vibrant and energetic. Strongly influenced by the work of the abstract expressionists and the romantic light of the old masters, Rayer-Smith’s large oil and acrylic paintings effortlessly fuse abstraction, the figurative and the surreal. Ian Rayer Smith paints full time from studios in Manchester and in rural North Shropshire, England. Voted one of Manchester’s Top 10 Artists by Manchester Confidential and Winner of the 2014 Warrington Contemporary Prize, Ian Rayer-Smith has been hailed as one of the North’s artists to watch.  1. Do you consider yourself as an emerging artist in contemporary art? Ian Rayer Smith : I hope so. As a contemporary painter, I’ve been constantly experimenting and evolving to the point where I have now established my own artistic identity that validates me …