The North Shoreian, August 2009

The Creatives, by Sarah Battaglia

Adam D. Smith:
Taking a Realistic Look

at the North Shore

    When Adam Smith was a child as far back as first grade, he had to keep his hands busy. Whether he was doodling in his notebook, building model trains or later drawing floor plans for houses that he dreamed to inhabit some day, he had the desire to create things with both the precise eye of an architect and the creative mind of a painter. This precision and vision soon culminated into an artistic realism where landscapes appear as photographs on a much larger canvas.

    Mr. Smith, now 33 grew up on the North Shore with the coastlines and surrounding landscape serving as a constant source of inspiration. Encouraged by his family’s passion for water and boating, he was exposed to breathtaking coastal scenes early on.

    “My grandparents had a boat in Port Jefferson,” he recalls. “Being out on the boat, it provided a different view of the scenery and coastline.” Several of his works, including “Danford’s Marina,” “Pre-Season at Preston’s” and “The Bounty,” reflect his love for the nautical North Shore, particularly his native Port Jefferson.

    With a Bachelor of Fines Arts degree from Syracuse University, one can see that Mr. Smith is a student of photorealism, a genre where paintings are made to appear like a photograph. “I’m somewhat of a perfectionist,” says Mr. Smith in his home studio. “I want to make the painting technically correct, to reproduce it like a photograph.” Although this obsession with accuracy seems more suited toward architecture and design, he feels the discipline of fine art painting fulfills his deeper need to express his passions and creativity.

    Like Richard Estes, one of the early pioneers of photorealism in the 1960’s, Mr. Smith’s brushwork is barely detectable in his photo-like rendition of “West Meadow Windsurfer,” where sand, seaweed and water capture the exact textures, colors and depths that seemingly only a digital camera could reproduce. It is a painting that compels the viewer to walk barefoot across the expanse and slowly descend into the calm waters behind it.

    What you will not see in Mr. Smith’s paintings is any distortion of truth. His fondness of photorealism is evident in the clean lines, details and colors in every nook and cranny of each pebble, piece of wood or foaming wave.

    In the cover photo, “Saturday Morning-Port Jefferson Harbor,” a 16” x 20” oil on canvas done last year, Mr. Smith gives some background to its creation in an accompanying essay;

    “It was a brilliant morning in late spring on Long Island. The atmosphere was quiet; the tug boats tied up; the fishing charters out for the morning; the launch boats yet to be summoned and the day trippers soon to arrive. As I walked toward the ferry pier I was struck by the intense color beaming across the harbor. The red and white striped smoke stacks pierce the brilliant blue sky as they cast a glimmering reflection across the water. The slightly rippled surface of the harbor reflects the pure sunlight of the moment and the densely populated marina. Then, perhaps the most impressive and powerful element in the harbor, there is the crimson-colored tugboat. This mighty tug is rich with texture and exudes a stalwart character as she sits at rest awaiting her next mission. However, with all the industry and recreation of the harbor, there seems to be a strange absence of people. This is the way it was, the most beautiful time on the harbor - clear, quiet and full of potential for the day to come.”

    In “Strong’s Neck,” my personal favorite, Mr. Smith replicates with meticulous detail the soft ripples of water, the sun’s glittering reflection and every reed and rock in exact likeness. Examining the canvas up close, it was hard to imagine the process that would produce such a work.

    As Mr. Smith tells it, “The execution and process of the creation is just as important as the finished product. It’s important to render the subject in the most accurate way, and bring out subtleties that the viewer might not otherwise notice.”

    To break it down, first Mr. Smith will take a number of photographs using different exposures to select from various kinds of lighting and colors.

    “I paint from photographs that I take and then do a composite and work off of that,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll make adjustments in Photoshop to get it just right.”

    Once he has found the photo he’d like to paint, he sketches his subject in pencil then adds color in an acrylic or other medium throughout the whole sketch. Using oils, he then focuses on one small section of the painting at a time, filling in the specific details before moving to the next section. He prefers to work back to front, painting a sky before the foreground objects. He may decide to make the photographed colors richer in order to draw one’s eye to the scene, like the bold red he utilizes in the signs and buoys of “Deep Sea Fishing.”

    Each painting is a carefully calculated decision of composition, light, shadow and spatial relationships designed to tell a story and attract the viewer.

    “As a realistic oil painter, one of the main goals in translating our environment on to canvas is to reach out to those observing the painting,” explains Mr. Smith. “I want the person to look into the painting – to make them feel like they are there and they can walk through it.”

    Beginning with acrylics in high school, Mr. Smith later experimented with various media through college until he settled on oils, which he prefers because it lends itself best to thinly layering paint and building it up to create depth, shadow and physical presence. Oils also add the rich shimmering feel that engages each viewer and beckons them to explore his paintings further.

    However, Mr. Smith will sometimes deviate from the oils as he does in “Taxi!,” a gouache – or opaque watercolor – medium, resembling Norman Rockwell’s “Sport,” with its similar bright whites an color contrasts.

    Mr. Smith’s paintings have graced the covers of the Hamptons publication “Dan’s Papers” twice in 2006 with his “Pumpkin Patch” and “East Hampton Surf.” In “Pumpkin Patch,” done from a photo taken in Calverton, the oranges mix with dull yellows and hints of green inside the pumpkins’ textured lines while the shadows bring such depth and dimension that the viewer is ready to take one home to make pie.

    Mr. Smith’s studio and home contains a large array of artwork including paintings and prints of other locations he has visited such as the magnificent blue-green waters of St. John, the darker and somber buildings of Florence, Italy, and a piece entitled “No Fishing” (1993), which depicts a dock at wintertime, painted at the age of 17. He has also painted incredibly tiny scenes on driftwood that he found and transformed into lovely art pieces that have sold out, including the 5”x14” “Setauket Harbor Reflections” as well as book covers and artwork inside pinball machines. He is a freelance illustrator for ad agencies and currently works as graphic designer while he continues to exhibit and create work on private commissions.   

    For the last fifteen years, Mr. Smith’s award-winning work has appeared in many local, national and international exhibits and shows. He has had his work shown at the Christopher Gallery several times in the last few years, Guild Hall in East Hampton, Artist’s Gallery in Greenport, Gallery North in Setauket, Montreal, Canada and Florence, Italy.

Honoring the Artist: Adam Smith

The week’s cover artist, Adam Smith, is a testament to tenaciousness, considering that he has stuck with his job as a graphic artist all these years while still pursuing his own creative endeavors. We talked to Mr. Smith about this process and his plans for the future.

Q: The pumpkin patch cover is not only indigenous to this area, particularly the North Fork, but also indicative of your own life.

A: Yes, although I live in Selden now, I grew up here in Long Island, in Port Jefferson where my family was really into boating. Even though I studied art at Syracuse University, I still settled in this area, working in Westhampton and now at Searles Graphics in Yaphank for the last seven years.

Q: How did Syracuse prepare you for the art profession?

A: I majored in illustration, but I had a well-rounded education in the visual arts too. I began to think I could actually make money at art. My training enabled me to get a full-time job in graphic design. I’m lucky because nowadays it’s hard; a lot of illustrations are stock drawings.

Q: But despite your fortunate situation, you still have another desire?

A: Yes. Inside, I want to be a classical painter and show in galleries.

Q: Are there any particular artists who have influenced this classical objective?

Q: I can see why you respect Estes. He’s also a Photo Realist like you. I bet the same thing happens when people see your work.

A: Yes, I want to capture things in the landscape that people may not notice. I did a beach scene where I painted the rocks in the water that you wouldn’t see in a photograph. The waves rolling in, the sun sparkling on the rocks. I want people to stop, notice and imagine they are walking into the painting.

Q: That’s a tall order. How do you do it?

A: It takes a lot of patience. I have tried to paint a little looser, but the technical precision always works itself in there.

Q: Always in the back of your mind, however, you’re thinking about the future, I would imagine.

A: Yes, hopefully, I’ll be doing commissions and have my work represented in galleries. I may possibly have my own gallery someday. Right now, our four-month-old baby girl keeps my wife and me busy.

Q: Do you think your attitude toward your art will change as the years go by?

A: Definitely. It will be my own art. People can take it or leave it. Buy it or not. The important thing is that it’s what I love to do.

– Marion Wolberg Weiss