NYAB Event - Phyllis Smith "The Brush or the Lens"

Phyllis Smith "The Brush or the Lens"

This event has ended.
At Viridian Artists, Inc.
Media: Painting

Although Smith's work as a painter may best be described as "photorealistic," the difference between her work and that of other artists is that she not only uses select photograph as a “sketch” for future paintings, but exhibits photographs that she believes stand on their own with equal importance, in groupings along with the paintings. In this exhibition, Smith also has included a collection of photographs in a video presentation, which emphasizes her integrated versatility.

The title of this show "The Brush or the Lens" represents the artist’s continuing commitment to expressing her fascination with nature through both photography and painting. Her meticulous concentration on detail in her paintings has frequently elicited the question "Is that a painting or a photograph?" In fact, one piece "Autumn Leaves," a triptych, displays a photograph of a grouping of leaves on the forest floor, then a painting created from that original photograph, and finally, a photograph of that painting. The effect of this "crossing of the boundaries" leads one to marvel at the similarity of the three images.

In her first solo exhibit at Viridian, Smith focused on what she referred to as "complex microcosms found close to the earth." She described them as "Naturescape". In the current exhibit, Smith has taken her love for nature one step further to demonstrate her technical precision again, this time with flowers. For example in her painting entitled "Rose of Sharon" she gently captures the flower's folds and shadows, as your eye takes in the finely veined, translucent petals illuminated by the sun.