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Return to artists work
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A native of the Carolinas, Smith has firmly established herself in Charleston’s artistic community. With a style consisting of large brush strokes and bold, vibrant colors, Smith has grown exceptionally accomplished at capturing the expansive marsh vistas, beaches and waterways that are an integral part of the Lowcountry landscape.
Following the birth of her children, who incidentally are triplets, Smith enrolled in art classes at the Gibbes Museum of Art in downtown Charleston, where she further developed her love of painting. “I really became serious about it immediately”, Smith recalls. “It was like a part of me that I had not been able to fulfill yet. I was lost in it.”
For the past twenty-five years, Smith has dedicated herself to painting, and though her subject matter frequently reflects the Lowcountry landscape, her success has far outgrown the confines of South Carolina. Her work has been shown in prominent galleries across the nation, from New York, Washington D.C. and Martha’s Vineyard, MA, to San Francisco, and Carmel, CA. In addition, many of her pieces are included in some of the nation’s finest corporate collections such as Walt Disney World, IBM, and Johnson and Johnson.
But despite being a native of South Carolina, her love of broad and encompassing landscapes, which are frequently the subject of her work, grew out of a trip she took to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the late seventies.
The tidal landscapes of the Lowcountry presented Smith with different challenges to the ones she encountered in New Mexico. Rocky Mountains, awe-inspiring canyons and windswept deserts were suddenly replaced with mile-upon-mile of flat marshland - a world seemingly void of the diagonal lines that artists use to balance a painting and add depth. Seeking out diagonal lines in a predominantly flat environment forced Smith to examine the Lowcountry more closely. It was then that she discovered that the lines were to be found in the colorful shifting clouds and meandering creeks.
Using large brushstrokes and eye-catching colors, Smith has grown adept at capturing not just the physical nature of a place, but the feeling as well. Her paintings, whether they depict vibrant sunsets or the sweeping expanses of the Lowcountry marshland, give the viewer a sense of the immediacy of the moment as though Smith, working against the clock, was able to capture the essence of her subject.
“I can’t emphasize enough just how much I want my work to look quick, impulsive, and spontaneous, like it just happened and flowed, as opposed to appearing overworked”, Smith explains. She adds that the bold colors she uses give the paintings an element of surprise “so that you are not looking at something you have seen a thousand times before. It is making you more aware of the colors that are actually in the landscape”, Smith explains. “These colors are there, I just exaggerate them as much as possible. I want my work to be expressionistic, whilst also remaining in the realm of reality.”
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