Michael Duncan Smither CNZM

To see all of Michael's work currently displayed at The Little Gallery please click here

Michael Duncan Smither, CNZM, is well known for his environmental work, sculpture, murals, silk screen prints, his music as well as for his painting.

Michael was born in New Plymouth and studied art in Auckland at the Elam School of Art. Michael is one of New Zealand’s most sought-after senior painters and known for his iconic representations of his life and environment. He has held many prestigious one-man shows in New Zealand and Australia, and was Frances Hodgkins Fellow at Otago University in 1970.

Michael Smither set the record for the most expensive painting sold that was painted by a living New Zealand artist when his 1967 painting entitled Sea Wall and Kingfisher sold for $342,000 in October 2019.

Also in 2019, Smither's painting of Saint Francis and the Wolf sold at auction for $240,000. The painting took almost 12 years to complete and incorporates Smither's Catholic faith, telling the story of St Francis of Assisi and a wolf that terrorized the Umbrian town of Gubbio in 1220. Saint Francis and the Wolf are sitting below ferns with the wolf staring out at the viewer while Saint Francis has his eyes closed.

In 2022 one of Michael's original paintings (2 Rock Pools) was on-sold at auction for $516,000.  This surpassed Michael's previous record for having sold the most expensive original painting by a living artist. Limited edition prints of all these works are available through The Little Gallery.

Smither was the recipient of the 1970 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship from the University of Otago. In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts.

He now lives and works on the Coromandel Peninsula.