"I am always working on the same thing: landscapes that show the changes in color that take place in different seasons, or the light and impressions of movement in a space. I want to grab that special moment: the one that comes along and makes you stop dead in your tracks --- and then makes you glad you can see.
My subject matter has always been the light that infuses a scene. I'm interested in both seasonal changes and in different times of day. Some of the smaller paintings are done as sketches for larger work, but often enough end up standing on their own."
For 28 years, Mary Smith ran a successful landscape architectural firm in Quincy , designing landscapes for high–end residential projects, condominiums, public parks, city plazas and universities. Going from Harvard Yard to Chatham was all in a day's work. Many of her projects were published in national and international magazines, including BOSTON HOME Magazine, Country Homes and Interiors in Great Britain , and in a special edition on landscape architect's own gardens in Landscape Architecture Magazine. Now, after selling Mary Smith Associates three years ago, she has refocused on her first love: watercolor painting, something she's been doing on a regular basis since she was five.
She became an artist member of both the SSAC and the Copley Society in 1975 and had her first show with Connie Pratt in 1976. She studied “plein-air” painting with Murray and Elaine Wentworth for several years and credits them with her habit of keeping an extensive collection of field sketchbooks, a constant source of inspiration and a record of work that goes back 30 years. Going out to paint with them in all kinds of weather forced her to sketch compositions quickly and then to paint fast. The paintings show a deft hand and confident brushwork. Later studio work with Mary Lizotte gave her the confidence to expand her palette. It's almost impossible to paint watercolor and not be influenced by John Singer Sargent. But other artists have also had an effect on her work as well. Wolf Kahn, Edward Hopper and David Dewey are favorites. In the last few years she has had the opportunity to paint in Italy and to study with Matthew Daub, a well-regarded watercolorist from Pennsylvania , who has an eye for detail and an appreciation for the work of Andrew Wyeth.
Her most recently completed series was done during 2006 in the Fore River Shipyard. As the area changes over the next few years, this group of twenty paintings will serve as a record of the shipyard from an artist's point of view unlike any other. The work was shown in June of 2007 at the Thomas Crane Public Library for the celebration of the 125 th Anniversary of the opening of the Library.
In 2000, she became an associate member of the New England Watercolor Society and won first place in The Quincy ArtFest for watercolor. In 2004, she won second place for mixed media in the same show.
She has had a number of shows over the years and shown in several galleries: Bare Cove Gallery, Staircase Gallery, Wood's Hole Gallery, Copley Society Members Shows and the South Shore Art Center . She is owner of Black's Creek Studio in Quincy.
Mary Smith had a solo show at our Gallery which opened on November 16, 2007. You can see the paintings 'here'.
back to Artists |
