PROVENANCE From the Collection of Sarah Smither, the artist's daughter

In the painted kitchens of Michael Smither, the rhythms and energy of a young family combine with life's necessities of food, shelter, and sunshine. By empowering the interior domestic space, Smither eclipses the outside world with brightness.

Studies such as this one are focused in a way that seals both the viewer and its subjects in the poetry of a single moment. A number of the artist's domestic paintings are chaotic, capturing moments of conflict, joy and children fighting. One of the things which makes this work special is that it has a calmer quality to it. There is a quiet feeling to this portrayal of the artist's young daughter Sarah. From the highchair, Sarah's right arm reaches over her head in a pose which is not so much a single jerky moment frozen in time as a long, languid stretch. She looks to be basking in the sunshine. In fact, she is part of the topography of a room made up of a perfect duality of space and planes.

Every shape has its complementary opposite - a chair to match the highchair; a plate and knife to the cup and saucer; pot to an element; open door to a wood panelled wall. The compositional aspects of the painting are equally complementary: flat, stacked colour works in a complex arrangement of four different levels of space between table, floor, bench, and the room beyond.

The other striking thing about Kitchen Study, No. 8 is that unlike many of the hyper-realistic, modular works which Smither completed in this series, this study has a loose fluidity to it, which adds to the sense of tender observation. As he depicts his daughter in a way that is gentle and loving, Smither's slightly sketchier, more impressionistic approach also radiates from the painting.