Gary Smith: Artist Profile
Art has always been very good to me. I am grateful for that and have been able to coach many other artists to reach their own goals in a way that is genuine and true to themselves and powerful.
As for my own art the most important to me is to communicate the essence of a person or any subject as I sense it. My life centres around people so I draw and paint portraits, figures and urban topics and I teach. In addition to the essence of the subject I challenge myself to make my work obvious that it is a drawing or painting but that somehow the viewer can sense the presence of a live person in air that they breathe and are alive. Not an easy goal.
What makes my work different from others?
I have three main influences that make my work different.
1. My mother.
What I believe makes my work unique and successful is my strong empathy and unusual sense of one's essence. Yes I know that sounds very intangible and exaggerated but my personal genes plus my upbringing nurtured this sensitivity. My mother was half gypsy and that may be a factor but undeniable is her courage and influence. At age 2 and half she had polio that affected her legs. She wanted children but I was the first to be born. Firstly I feel very lucky in that. Of course we should all be but I always felt exceptionally lucky. I learned so much from her, especially about people such as the importance of seeing people as people. Sounds simple but apparently is not. Secondly she taught me to be interested in people, to observe them.
She would often ask me to notice someone or a couple or a family and ask me what kind of a day they were having. How are they getting along? What does his walking tell you? and so on. Think about this. Could there be any better lessons for a Portrait artist? ... or for any teacher? Drawing a portrait of someone right in front of me is a two person intimate act that is still my favourite art activity and I have done that over 3,000 times.
2. Expo '67 anf Terre Des Hommes in 1968. My experience drawing portraits 10 hours a day 7 days a week throughout was the opportunity of a lifetime to forge my drawing skills an
When we did portraits in conté or soft pastels we were given 5 minutes max to draw a portrait inB&W and a whole 15 minutes in colour! In the beginning that was a bit challenging. Firstly it was essential to size up right away what makes the models' faces look like themselves. Eventually I added importance to capturing what I thought them to be like. That is why if you study my work you will see that even style and techniques can change for individual portraits.
The pursuit of this skill has stayed with me for my entire career. Even today when I get on a bus I sit half way back on the driver's side. Every single new passenger mounts the steps (while I observe), then they deposit their money or show their token I watch how they communicate with the driver), and then for a magical moment they all face the whole bus and choose where they will sit. This moment tells everything. For that moment they are not self conscience and I have the chance to decide what makes their face unique.
To this practise I have added the strengthening of my VM (Visual Memory) as taught by Horace LeCoq de Boisbeaurien in the mid 1800's. This is a powerful tool/skill because the people I draw are not professionals so won't likely stay still ~ and I do not want them to. As did Andrew Wyeth, I want them to be at ease and diague is welcome while I draw. You can see how important VM is.
btw Although I draw fast, my portraiture courses are about 24 lessons broken down over 4 courses.
3. My China experiences. This is my final influence and definitely makes my work different.
I was lucky to be invited often by China to travel with Chinese artists. To suggest the level of artists there was one who was often paid with a house for a 10-20 minute black ink brush drawing. We share our cultural concepts and techniques. A professional Chinese artist learns about 92 different brush stokes for example. They do not think that is such a big deal because even the youngest students must know 45 strokes just to write Mandarin or Cantonese.
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This year I moved to St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada and am taking a break to explore this new environment and to work more in oils and on my skills. What is important to me at this age is to generally slow down and do fewer things better, and to digitize my art lessons live with ZOOM and Streaming Video with Vimeo as my legacy. I strongly endorse artists sharing ideas.
I have sold paintings from as high as $34,000 to $1.75 (and sometimes donated free). I have exhibited in Canada, New York City, Paris and from 2013 until Covid, to my complete thrill, a lot throughout China as a guest. It has become my main market.
I like to draw and paint mostly Portraiture (people and pets), Figures, Urban Scenes and Ships but of course I paint many other genres when inspired to do so or for commissions.This means I can help artists whatever their own art is like.
Murals have been an important part of my legacy.
To the right here I am in 2007 working on my mural
at #2 Outer Battery on the retainer wall.
There are three scenes:
1. The Fire of 1892 (The city would approve the mural only
if he buildings were all in the correct places.)
2. The Narrows with fish flakes and ships.
3. The S.S. Neptune stuck in the ice with sailors
sawing and pulling the huge ship inch by inch.
