Welcome to Smith Fine Arts
This site contains the artistic endeavors of William T. Smith II, an art student interested in learning the Classical Academic approach to oil painting. Mr. Smith’s background includes some basic art courses together with many years of personal study dedicated to exploring and applying the techniques employed by the “Old Masters” when, he believes, oil painting was indeed a craft and reached its zenith. As Mr. Smith puts it: ” It seems to me that many artists today have lost sight of oil painting as a craft.” Preferring “Realism” to other expressions of art, he feels that the methodical, step-by-step approach of producing an oil painting utilized by the “masters” although perhaps overlooked as out-of-style for some, is making a comeback. Mr. Smith is pleased to point out that there are various art academies (public and private) books, tapes and other instructional material available today that explain and identify some of the techniques that the masters employed (as best as can be determined). He feels that ” the ability of playing light against dark, achieving transparent shadows, effective impasto highlights, proper color “value” and the luminescence achieved by “glazing” can best (and perhaps only) be achieved through the Classical Academic approach.
The purpose of this website is to display some samples of Mr. Smith’s artistic endeavors and to invite comments from interested ones who have questions or who would like to discuss the Classical Academic approach to oil painting. Since many of the “‘Old Masters” studied the masters before them as training exercises, some of the works on this site are Mr. Smith’s copies of various works accomplished in like manner; as training exercises. So, Mr. Smith is an artist who is fascinated with the artistic abilities of a by-gone-era and who has spent many years attempting to understand and recreate some of the marvelous effects that the masters achieved. Other paintings presented are his original works usually based upon photographs of pets, vacation spots, and various other subjects that he has painted by applying what he has learned.
For those interested, utilizing a sketch over a colored ground, followed by a monochrome underpainting, and the subsequent applying of oil paints in glazes to build layers of color over time, has been replaced by a more spontaneous effort of paint application perhaps in only one or two sittings. Although producing faster results, this approach sacrifices many of the effect that the Old Masters were able to achieve. Further, the availability of commercially-prepared materials, the disappearance of apprentices to prepare surfaces, grind pigments, and cook medium together with an increased demand for quick delivery has led artists away from the more time consuming classical approach.
Mr. Smith paints as a hobby usually concentrating on only one painting at a time.