Herb Smith

Hern Smith

Herb Smith – “White-Throat Sparrow”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 16″ x 12″ 

RWK!

Herb Smith – “Piper” 2015, Marker Collaboration with Chris RWK

black throated green warbler

Born in 1981 in Staten Island, NY. Herb Smith has studied painting by reading books, visiting museums and by trail and error learning the craft of painting. He has exhibited work in the U.S and in Europe. Herb has been in  publications featuring his art, some of which are: ArtNews, Untitled II and III, The Thousands; painting inside. Herb currently lives and works in Staten Island painting and birding.

http://www.herbsmithart.com

Hooded Merganser

 

Artist Statement

From an early age I’ve had in interest in painting.  As a teenager I began to look at works by artists of the Northern Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age period spanning the 1400’s thru the 1600’s.  This would include painters such as Jan Van Eyck, Hans Memling, Rogier Van Der Wyden, Rembrandt and Vermeer. 

Also since the beginning I was interested in painting wildlife, especially birds. The structural differences between species along with all the colors and other traits of an animal have maintained an endless interest. The technique of building layers extending depth in a painting is what first attracted me to oil paint and retains my interest still.  Along with birds my subject matter goes from portraits to still life work. 

With each work  I use many different reference sources  to build up an idea. Visually I would like the viewer to recognize each part of the painting, but not to give the full story of the work, rather letting the viewer work out his/her own overall idea.  I’m not working to create a “photo realistic” image, but to convey an illusion that seems possible.

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