March Issue 2000
New Works by Betty Anglin Smith at The Wells Gallery in Charleston, SC
Coastal Creeks and Rivers, an exhibit of oil paintings by Lowcountry artist Betty Anglin Smith, will be on display at The Wells Gallery in Charleston, SC, through the end of March.
Beginning Mar. 17, her latest exhibit will feature twenty paintings whose thematic focus is the coastal creeks and rivers of the Lowcountry. However, it is not a new subject for Smith, who has spent the past decade diligently studying the Lowcountry landscape and translating its silent beauty into art. "I have probably been painting in this series for about ten years," explains Smith, "It is the excitement of discovering new creeks that I have not yet seen that inspires many of these new paintings." Creeks and rivers included in this exhibit will be Shem Creek, Jeremy Creek, the Stono, Wadmalaw, and Ashepoo Rivers.
While painting has always been a passion for Smith, early on she felt it was not a practical vocation. Temporarily placing her love of painting on the back burner, Smith attended Winthrop University in the 1960's, where she received a degree in elementary education. Afterwards she relocated to Charleston with her husband, Cody Smith. Following the birth of her children, who incidentally are triplets, Smith enrolled in art classes at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston and rekindled her love of painting.
More importantly, however, is the fact that Smith has passed her love and talent for art onto her children. Her two daughters, Jennifer Lynn Smith and Shannon Smith are highly-regarded painters, and her son Tripp Smith is an accomplished photographer. In many ways, Smith says, their mutual love of art serves as a family bond.
"I just feel like I am able to share more with them than in an average family situation. We are able to travel, photograph, and paint together. Last fall, the girls and I travelled to Tuscany for two weeks. It was an unforgettable experience." she says.
"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-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 works have been shown in prominent galleries across the nation, from New York, Washington, DC, and Martha's Vineyard, 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 landscape there was just awesome spectacular skies and the openness of it," Smith explains, "and when I came home I realized that we had that here and that I had not noticed it before."
The tidal landscapes of the Lowcountry presented
Smith with different challenges than the ones she encountered
in New Mexico. Rocky mountains, awe-inspiring canyons and windswept
deserts were suddenly replaced by miles-upon-miles 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 more
closely examine the Lowcountry, and as she discovered the lines
were there in the shifting clouds and meandering creeks, there
also was an abundance of color.
Using large brush strokes and grabbing 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, I want my work to look quick,
impulsive and spontaneous, like it just happened and flowed as
opposed to appearing overworked," Smith explains, adding
that the bold colors she chooses 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 but
also remain in the realm of reality."
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