Featured Artist for : March 2006

GLENN SMITH, ARTIST 

Upon retiring early from a career as a Geologist/Geophysicist, Glenn Smith discovered he missed the creativity of his career. On vacation at age 56, he bought a book on watercolor and began practicing the examples. Upon seeing his initial work, a gallery owner encouraged him to continue in art. Discovering his youthful interest in art still existed, he spent the greater part of two years in workshops studying under renowned water media artists such as Katherine Chang Liu, Christopher Schink, Frank Webb, Milford Zornes, Irving Shapiro, and others. He also drew from life models several times a week, and became skilled in charcoal and conte’ crayon drawing.

Glenn Smith began his art career as a watercolorist, but soon evolved into acrylics and finally into oils. Health concerns now restrict his exposure to oil paint to plein aire painting, and his large studio works are increasingly acrylics. His acrylics are softer-edged than usual and resemble oils or pastels. Instead of painting the typical commercial subjects such as the popular “nostalgia” pieces now in vogue, Smith chooses to paint familiar subjects that evoke an emotional response in him.  Increasingly, he has responded to the urging of his artist friends and critics and turned to depicting people instead of landscapes. In his portraits, Smith ambitiously strives to create both a work of art and a depiction of the humanity he observes in the subject.  Influenced by Bartolome’ Murillo and Renoir, he strives to combine the value painting of an “old master” scene with an increased use of color, a frustrating and very difficult task artistically.   

Currently, he is painting a series depicting young people doing ordinary things, such as playing a guitar, reading a book, or holding a cat. The ambitious goal of this series is to produce a work of lasting art that induces a sense of timeliness and serenity in the viewer. The works also must be accurate as a portrait, since the models are Smith’s grandchildren. The acrylic painting, “Young Guitarist”, actually depicts Smith’s youngest granddaughter, Jenny, captured practicing her guitar scales. The painting uses a blue-orange color scheme keyed to Jenny’s unusual red hair to induce color vibrations that enliven the painting, and features a simple circle composition designed to move the eye around the painting.