Sydney Smith

I come from the Mid-West where I received a BFA in Painting/Drawing and a MA from the University of Iowa in Printmaking under the instruction of Mario Lazansky, famous for his innovations in the printing and graphic fields. I recently relocated to Wakefield, Mass. from Los Angeles, California where I was an elementary school teacher, bringing art to my students. Retired now, it is a pleasure to work at what I love best - making pictures in pastel, oil pastel, charcoal, watercolors, acrylic and prints on various subjects. The creative process, to me, is a major part of being human and I look to many other artists for inspiration in the present and in the past. Color, to me is spiritual. While observing something in nature, I often use contrasting colors that come from a feeling. This then guides me to explore other variations that are abstracted toward new avenues of expression. The journey of this discovery to the final picture, is often a surprise. It is a development of the relationships between the lines, shapes and colors used in the visual picture.