[1] Smith was a wood engraver and printmaker, focusing on the life and culture of New Zealand.
Subjects including rugby, farming, gum digging and Māori culture.
[4] As a playwright, Smith wrote 24 plays, many of which are about notable New Zealanders, including Through Dark Clouds Shining about Ettie Rout; Mabel, based on the life of Mabel Howard; Frances Hodgkins: Painter about Frances Hodgkins;[2] and This Green Land: Margot Philips - Painter, based on the life of Margot Philips.
[5] He was also a poet, and penned The Journey, a nativity story in verse, written in 1958 but not published until 2010, and which is illustrated with his own wood engravings.
[1] In the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts,[6] and in 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Waikato.