Byron Smith

January 20, 2003 - March 31, 2003

Biography:

Byron Smith is a painter and printmaker. He is a Columbia, Missouri native best known as a landscape and figure artist working in the oil and watercolor medium. His paintings capture the Missouri River Valley, forest creeks, family farms, and historic places. Smith especially likes painting open air painting from nature, not from photographs. He enjoys depicting river towns like Rocheport, Easley, Glasgow, and Jefferson City. Boone County creeks such as Hinkson, Flatbranch, Gans and Cedar also get his attention.
In 1993-1998 he co-owned Mythmaker Gallery in Columbia, Missouri to help regional and community artists exhibit their art. He curated the Black History Month Artist Exhibition at UMC for the past five years and participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In his free time, Byron collects local history items and antique prints.

Artist's Statement:

Living in your hometown all your life has advantages for an artist. You know the people and the places so well. I never get bored painting a landscape location because working from nature the scene changes continuously. For example, I have painted the Missouri River many times from the bluffs at Easley. When I paint from nature I express myself by depicting the landscape elements I both see and feel. As a result every painting is different. This process is similar to painting the same model many times. Each time you learn more and more about him or her, and you bring what you learn to each work. My last painting of a subject always feels like my first.

BYRON SMITH
(573) 442-0921
byron9@gte.net
1004 Belleview Court
Columbia, MO 65203