From his earliest memories of childhood forward,
Smith has needed no persuasion to acquaint himself
intimately with piano, percussion, and art. Smith’s
lifelong compulsion to make music, to draw, to paint, and
to relish every kind of learning, bears exquisite fruit
in the paintings he creates today.
Smith moved to Santa
Fe in 2000 where he painted his way up from newcomer to
having his own studio/gallery on Canyon Road. His
creative spirit and his palette opened up completely to
the enticements of pure and luscious chroma. Color has
been a signature element in Smith’s paintings - vivid,
alive, skillfully orchestrated to work harmoniously in
splendid variety. Smith’s compositions have music in
them, balanced, nuanced, rhythmic and flowing here,
staccato and syncopated there. Smith paints what is
visible and suggests with finesse, delicacy, and
sensitivity what is not.
Smith paints in three mediums: oil, acrylic, and
watercolor, the last of which has its own expressive
power and has added personal meaning for the artist.
“I
can’t describe exactly why, but I like to use all three
mediums for different reasons. Muted colors seem richer
in oil; for a brighter palette, I like acrylic. I have
always loved watercolor, the medium my grandfather
taught me, for its unique set of properties and
possibilities,” says Smith.
More than half Smith’s
paintings are of women – elegant, at ease, naturally
graceful, naturally beautiful in their exquisite variety
and in the exquisite settings Smith conjures for them.
Patterns and colors relate to each other in opposition
and harmony in all of Smith’s paintings, just as they do
in the lives of the subjects Smith explores.
Smith’s
work encompasses contemporary romanticism and abstract
expressionism side by side, differentiated by degree of
abstraction, united by compositional and technical
brilliance. It is easy to see why Smith’s paintings
resonate with an ever-widening field of collectors.
