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Colin Smith

Colin Smith artwork 'Downtown Flyover' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
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Downtown Flyover Colin Smith
$1,000.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Solar Eclipse over Partridge Island' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
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Solar Eclipse over Partridge Island Colin Smith
$600.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Sylvie's Dream' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
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Sylvie's Dream Colin Smith
$600.00
Colin Smith artwork 'The World Above' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
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The World Above Colin Smith
$900.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Cats and Birds Together' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
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Cats and Birds Together Colin Smith
$500.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Library Dreams' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
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Library Dreams Colin Smith
$500.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Saint John and Its Beauties' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
Saint John and Its Beauties Colin Smith
$600.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Everything' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
Everything Colin Smith
$1,400.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Fredericton in the 16th Century Style' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
Fredericton in the 16th Century Style Colin Smith
$600.00
My Hundred Acre Woods Colin Smith
$1,200.00
Colin Smith artwork 'North America, Realistically Drawn' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
North America, Realistically Drawn Colin Smith
$900.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Three Rivers' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
Three Rivers Colin Smith
$490.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Vancouver' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
Vancouver Colin Smith
$550.00
Colin Smith artwork 'The Good Old Hockey Game' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
The Good Old Hockey Game Colin Smith
$450.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Tea Time on Saint Gertrude's Day' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
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Tea Time on Saint Gertrude's Day Colin Smith
$300.00
Colin Smith artwork 'Parliament of Fowls' at Gallery78 Fredericton, New Brunswick
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Parliament of Fowls Colin Smith
$1,400.00

Colin Smith taught high school art, theatre, and English for 20 years.  His work has been exhibited in galleries throughout NB and is included in public and private collections.  For 11 years, his drawings and cartoons were featured weekly in the Salon section of the Telegraph Journal.  He works out of his studio in the River Art Centre in downtown Florenceville-Bristol.

Artist Statement

Life presents me with subjects. I have drawn thousands of cartoons, and published some of them in newspapers and small publications, and many in the Salon section of the Telegraph-Journal for a decade.

The cartoon is where I started. It is a visual shorthand, stressing instant recognition, and distortion that makes things clearer. I do not draw cartoons anymore, but I love their accessibility and directness. However, they also tend to oversimplify what they draw, and that is something I have always tried to improve on.

Technically, I do big pen and ink drawings. I sketch out a lot of ideas and spend time roughing out a plan on the paper before inking. Then I work with the ink. I use metal tip dip pens and mapping pens because they give a changing line that technical pens cannot match. I like the finality of ink. Once you put a line down, it is there. This encourages concentration, improvisation, and fluidity. The paper is all part of this process, too. I use Stonehenge and rip it down to the size I use. Very tactile. If colour is needed, I use washes of coloured inks, or watercolour. On bigger drawings, I may use markers, and poured paints.

Maps are a prominent theme. I have done a suite of idiosyncratic maps, built around the world that I have loved and experienced. Currently, my maps trace journeys, real and imaginary. My drawings are usually populated with birds. I draw everything, all subjects, and situations, but somehow birds always show up. Sometimes they look like eighteenth century anatomy engravings, sometimes they are Nature or Death or Life, sometimes they represent the Wings Of Time or the Broken Heart Of The Poet, or Grief Overwhelming, but usually they are just birds. They are generally simplified and somewhat stylized. But that is the way birds are always seen, blurry in flight, and racing around the ground. So that is how I draw them. Photos show you every feather, but that is not the world.

I have a sketchbook with me always, filled with phrases, doodles, remembered quotes, and ideas. This is where all my ideas come from. I sketch pictures in books, photos on computers, shop windows, people sleeping, walking, and fighting - everything. I sketch onsite, and from memory. More and more, I sketch with my phone camera, too. It is the perfect drawing reference-it gets the general shape of things very nicely, and makes me come up with all the details myself.

Colin Smith, 2023

 

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