A dam S mith
Passion and Paint By Vicki Stavig
H
e’s young, he’s enthusiastic—and he’s talented. At just 29, Adam Smith is making quite a name for himself with his wildlife paintings, and he’s more than a little thrilled at having the opportunity to partake of everything involved in that process, from travel to research to the actual creation of his realistic renditions. Although he has had no formal training, Smith says he has benefited from the mentorship of one of the country’s foremost wildlife painters—his father. The young artist just happens to be the son of Daniel Smith. That mentorship, combined with the artistic genes he inherited from his father, are moving Smith along quickly, as he makes his mark in Western art. An indication of Smith’s remarkable talent came early on. In fact, in 2007, less than a year after he began to paint on a full-time basis, he sold
out at the Safari Club International Show. “I sold out in the first two hours of the first day of the show,” he says. “It wasn’t something I expected; it was pretty crazy. I think Dad was pretty shocked—and pretty proud.” Smith says he is passionate about painting, but that wasn’t always the case. Born in Minnesota, he moved with his family to Montana, when he was 9. His father had made a name for himself in the Federal Duck Stamp Competition but, as the print market began to dry up, he decided to move the family west and to create wildlife originals. It was a good move for the elder Smith, and a good move for the family. The younger Smith enjoyed exploring the outdoors and taking family trips, during which his father would do research for his paintings. Although he was drawing as a young boy, Smith was more interested in
ART of the WEST • September/October 2013
playing his guitar. “I started playing when I was 8; it was one of my passions,” he says. “I played with a lot of bands—blues and Southern rock.” Smith’s parents, he said, were encouraging and supportive of whatever interests he pursued, including music. While on a Caribbean cruise with the family, when he was in his early teens, he played for two nights with one of the onboard bands. He also played with bands at local bars in Bozeman, when he was so young that he had to have his parents accompany him to the venues. About that time, Smith became interested in cars and dreamed of a career in automotive design. “I spent Hitching a Ride, acrylic, 14˝ by 28˝ “Bison are one of my favorite subjects to research and photograph. The storm clouds rolling in provide a nice contrast against all the textures in the foreground.”
Hide and Seek, acrylic, 24˝ by 30˝ “Wolves are in their prime during the winter months. A little game of hide and seek will soon give chase.”
most of my senior year [in high school] doing car design sketches on my own, so art has always been in my life, from cars to wildlife,” he says. During his high school years, Smith worked at a local dealership, starting out by detailing cars and later organizing the car lot and performing miscellaneous tasks. His passion for cars later led Smith to enroll in a technical school in Wyoming and then to return to the dealership in Bozeman, where he worked as a technician for a year. Although he also was offered the opportunity to continue his training
with Audi and BMW, an opportunity that carries with it some prestige in the auto tech industry, he turned it down. Smith did so, because by then his interest in art had resurfaced and was so strong that he could not ignore it. “I had taken drawing and painting classes in high school and, at 16, I entered the junior duck stamp competition and discovered that I could paint,” he says. “I got first place in the state of Montana competition. Then I stopped and focused on cars.” While working as a technician,
September/October 2013• ART of the WEST
The Entourage, acrylic, 18˝ by 26˝ “The symbiotic relationship between different species is fascinating. The gulls stay close in hopes of obtaining any scraps left behind. The salmon run is short lived, and both species need to take advantage of the bounty.”
Smith started to paint in his spare time and discovered that his passion for painting was quickly outpacing his passion for cars. “”I picked it back up as a hobby, and it grew pretty fast,” he says. And so it was that, in 2006, at age 22, he borrowed a photo of a lion from his father and used it to create a painting that he quickly sold. The following year, Smith sold out at the Safari Club International Show in Reno, Nevada, and he was off and running. Still living in Bozeman, he has no official studio, working The Overlook, acrylic, 33˝ by 24˝ “It has been awhile since I have done a big landscape. My focus in this painting was to contrast the goats against the grand scale of the mountainside.”
instead in the living room of the guesthouse he rents there. “That show got my juices flowing,” he says. When a major gallery offered to represent him, Smith, who had been working part-time at the car dealership, quit his job. “I decided to take the leap,” he says. That leap has served him well. Since then, Smith has had his work accepted into several prestigious shows, including Quest for the West, Western Visions, and the Jackson Hole Art Auction. He also has shown his work at galleries from Arizona to New Jersey and Texas to Idaho. Smith began accompanying his father on research trips in 2006, traveling to Yellowstone, Alaska, Jasper, and Banff. “One of the best parts of the job is being out in the field,” he
says. “That’s where the ideas and inspiration come from.” Closer to home, Smith arms himself with a camera and hikes the area, looking for landscape scenes for his paintings, and it’s not unusual for him to work until the wee hours of the morning. “The other night I painted until 4 a.m.,” he says. “The one thing about painting at night is there are no distractions; it’s just me. I don’t have to worry about phone calls, and I get way more work done than I would during the day.” While he says he doesn’t have a favorite animal, Smith admits he paints a lot of cats. No matter what animal he is painting, however, it’s often the eyes that grab viewers and draw them in. “A lot can be said by the look in their eyes and
September/October 2013• ART of the WEST
Closing In, acrylic, 26˝ by 36˝ “I have painted more cats than any other subject. So much can be said with the look in their eyes. This lion has his eye on something, and he means business.”
their body posture,” he says. “I like to capture attitude. You can say a lot with a look.” Capturing the animal—those eyes, that posture, and that attitude—can be challenging during research trips. “They never stand still,” Smith says. “It can be tough. And it’s hard sometimes coming up with a strong composition or different atmosphere. Sometimes I’ll have an idea but no reference for what I would like to do. I’m always trying
to come up with something I haven’t seen before.” Smith admits that his work is occasionally compared to that of his father, something he considers a compliment of the highest order. “We both paint fairly realistic and representational,” he says, “but we come up with our own ideas and have different views in our paintings. Dad critiques my work, and I see every painting he does and will comment on them.”
ART of the WEST • September/October 2013
Up Close and Personal, acrylic, 16˝ by 18˝ “Cape buffaloes are very tolerant of the presence of oxpeckers. Oxpeckers feed on the ticks that accumulate on the buffalo’s coat, a mutual benefit for both species.”
His father, Smith says, has always been supportive but not pushy, even when Smith was a young boy, trying his hand at drawing wildlife. “Dad didn’t push me, but if I had a question about how to draw something, he would help out,” he says. “He was
always encouraging about whatever interest I had.” Asked about any changes coming in terms of subjects or style, Smith says he’s considered doing figurative paintings. “I’ve done a figure, and it was received very well,” he says. “It’s not something I would rule out. And I might experiment more with oils.” Smith’s medium of choice is acrylics, which, he says, “can be tough to handle, but they came a little more natural for me. I’ve done a few oil paintings, but it’s been a couple years. Painting in oils is a whole different process. I loosen up with them. I can paint faster and let some
of the details go. But I like acrylics, because they dry fast, and I can get fairly detailed with them. I can do some dry brushing and sponging to get textures. It’s what I’ve become comfortable with.” While there might not be a major change looming in the near future professionally, Smith’s personal life recently underwent a huge change. He married Ashton Meyer in August. “We met through a friend who set us up,” he says. “She’s not an artist, but she loves animals and likes the outdoors and nature. She’s very creative and is interested in horticulture. And she has three horses, two mallard ducks, two dogs, cats, chickens, and pigeons.” This month, just weeks after the wedding, Smith will have a show at Trailside Galleries and will participate in the Quest for the West
Show at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana. He also will exhibit at two shows in Jackson, Wyoming: the Western Visions 25th Annual Show at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and the Jackson Hole Art Auction. Although Smith has realized tremendous success at an early age, he takes nothing for granted. “I’m probably my own worst critic,” he says. “I’m trying to come up with new ways of doing things, with new ideas and compositions.” Whatever Smith comes up with, whether it’s next month or next year, it’s sure to delight the many avid collectors of his work.
Vicki Stavig is editor of Art of the West.
September/October 2013• ART of the WEST