 | This article has multiple issues. Please help to improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Gerald Steadman Smith | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | December 15, 1929 |
| Died | May 17, 2015 (aged 85) |
| Occupation | Painter |
Gerald Steadman Smith (December 15, 1929 – May 17, 2015) was a Canadian artist.
Smith was born in 1929 in West Head, Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (NS). He spent his youth living with his parents, Lottie (Steadman) and Benjamin Smith, and two siblings, Sidney Smith and Dellas Smith Nickerson, on Cape Sable. Smith's early education (Grades 1–6) consisted of correspondence courses administered by the NS Department of Education. When he reached Grade 7 his father purchased a home in Clark's Harbour on Cape Sable Island so that the children could attend school on the mainland.
The family home on Cape Sable was part of the Cape Sable Light Station, a lighthouse facility, which was operated by the Canadian Department of Transport. Benjamin was the Head Lightkeeper of the station. Smith's childhood on Cape Sable exerted a strong influence on his career as it was there that he was exposed to the Atlantic Ocean and the lighthouse that served as subject matter for his early work and continued to provide a major influence on his work throughout his career.
After graduating from Clark's Harbour High School in 1947 Smith enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force where he served for five years as a Radar Technician achieving the rank of Leading Aircraftsman (LAC). During a stopover in Moncton, NB he had the opportunity to see an art show featuring the works of the Group of Seven painters which was showing in the lobby of the local CN hotel. This exhibit awakened a long-held interest in painting and he began to accumulate art books and to spend his furlough days visiting galleries in Montreal and the Ontario region where he was stationed.
In 1953 he voluntarily left the Air Force after five years of service and returned to Nova Scotia where he found employment as a Radar Technician with Fairey Aviation in Eastern Passage, NS. He later transferred to the position of Technical Illustrator with the same company. In this capacity he was involved in illustrating military hardware including the "Beartrap," a hauldown system that was designed by that company for installation on smaller naval ships to aid helicopter landings on rolling and pitching flight decks. As his interest in art continued to occupy his mind he enrolled in evening classes at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where he was encouraged by the Principal, Donald MacKay, to pursue an academic career.
In 1973, Smith was accepted into the Fine Arts Program at Mount Allison University. He graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (with Distinction) after receiving many awards including the Wood and Gairdner Scholarships. In 1977 he moved his family to Saskatoon, SK where he received a Graduate Student Scholarship for enrollment into the Master of Arts Program at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1979 he graduated with a Master of Arts in Studio Painting. Following this he took up a number of teaching positions throughout Saskatchewan through the University of Saskatchewan's Extension Department. From 1978 to 1987 he taught painting and drawing in Melfort, Hudson Bay and Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
Under the auspices of the University of Saskatchewan he wrote and starred in a series of fourteen cable television shows in which he demonstrated various painting techniques. This series appeared on Saskatoon Telecable 10 in 1979.
In 1985, his wife's career with Agriculture Canada took Anna and Gerald to Regina and then on to Ottawa in 1987.
In 1988 Smith joined the faculty at the Ottawa School of Art (OSA) at the Downtown Campus at 35 George Street. There he taught painting and drawing for 24 years until his retirement in 2012 at age 83.
Smith met his future wife, Anna Oliver, at the Cape Sable Light Station through a long-time friend, Betty-June Smith (Richardson), who was married to Smith's brother Sidney, the Assistant Keeper at the station. Smith and Anna were married in Yarmouth, NS in August 1957. They settled in Dartmouth, NS where they raised four children (Roxanne –b.1958, Karen –b.1960, Jeffrey – b.1961 and Melanie – b.1964).
The lighthouse at Cape Sable was equipped with a 3rd order Fresnel lens that when illuminated would cast off refracted light into the lantern room. Many of Smith's abstract paintings borrow from his experiences viewing the coloured light produced by this lens. Other influences include the works of Ellsworth Kelly, Chuck Close and Sandro Botticelli.
Smith's work is found in many public collections including the: Canada Council Art Bank, City of Ottawa, Mendel Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan, St. Thomas Moore Gallery, Gairdner Fine Art Collection, Victoria General Hospital, Archelaus Smith Museum and over 200 private and public collections.
Smith was very prolific though his long career that saw the creation of over original 800 original works of art most of which were landscape, figure and abstract paintings in oil and acrylic. He also produced a number of sculptural works in wood and stone but their production declined following the end of his academic career due to lack of studio space.
His success as a painter was connected to his fine drawing skills and which can be seen in the hundreds of figure drawings (primarily figure and still life) that he produced.
Moon Crater (1974 – triptych) was one of the first abstracts that Smith produced. It consisted of three 48" × 48" acrylic panels that when assembled comprised a series of coloured bands that transition from red to yellow, yellow to blue and from blue to red. Although the individual panels appear to represent an impact structure with a round central uplift and raised rim the comparison to the basic design of the glass panels in a Fresnel lens can also be understood.
At the Mendel #1 (1981) comprises a 47" × 57" oil on canvas painting of two figures (posed by his son Jeffrey and Karen Faul) in a gallery setting. This painting served as the first of 29 similarly themed works comprising figures in gallery settings with real or imagined art works and sculptural elements filling the space that Smith produced from 1981 through to 1997.
Michelle (1995 – inventory no. 95.1) comprises a 66" × 50" oil on canvas painting of the head of female model rendered in fine detail from the neck up. Smith produced a total of 26 similar themed images of large heads from 1995 to 2011 including: John Mlacak (2003, inventory no. 2003.1), Yves Larocque (2003, inventory no. 2003.3) and Jeremy Smith (2007, inventory no 2007.2).
The Journey (2002 – inventory no. 2002.1) comprises a 72" × 480" oil on canvas mural that was commissioned for Kanata Baptist Church in Kanata, ON. The painting depicts the migration of Abraham and a group of followers from Ur (Babylonia) to Canaan. The painting comprises a group of more than 40 figures walking or riding from right to left. The models were mostly drawn from fellow artists, students at the OSA and family members.
Floating Circle #6 (a.k.a. The Little Wow) (2007, inventory no. 2007.4) comprises one of a series of seven 40" × 40" or smaller acrylic on canvas abstracts with a round central element with horizontal bars or wedges set against or comprising an element in a background of bars and wedges. Most of these panels were all produced over a two-year period from 2005 to 2007. Comparisons can be made to early abstract pieces including Moon Crater, Saturn Transition 1 and Saturn Transition 2 (both produced in 1974) but more importantly the idea for these works were drawn from the artists consideration for the refracted light and the geometric design of concentric coloured circles of light that were observed in the Fresnel lens at the Cape Sable light station.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gerald Steadman Smith . |
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
A Fresnel lens is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships."
Paul Jenkins was an American abstract expressionist painter.
Cape Fear Lighthouse was a coastal beacon built in 1903, replacing the Bald Head Lighthouse as the main navigation aid for Cape Fear and the Frying Pan Shoals off the coast of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It stood near the cape on Bald Head Island. It was a steel octagonal pyramidal skeleton frame lighthouse, as opposed to the conical brick lighthouses usually associated with the state. It was painted red and white horizontal stripes: three white and two red and housed a first-order Fresnel lens produced by the Henry-LePaute Company in France.
The Ponce de Leon Inlet Light is a lighthouse and museum located at Ponce de León Inlet in Central Florida. At 175 feet (53 m) in height, it is the tallest lighthouse in the state and one of the tallest in the United States. It is located between St. Augustine Light and Cape Canaveral Light. Restored by the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association, the lighthouse became a National Historic Landmark in 1998.
The Big Sable Point Light is a lighthouse on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan near Ludington in Mason County, Michigan, at the Ludington State Park. It is an active aid to navigation.
The New Dungeness Lighthouse is a functioning aid to navigation on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, located on the Dungeness Spit in the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge near Sequim, Clallam County, in the U.S. state of Washington. It has been in continuous operation since 1857, although the current lighthouse tower is 26 feet (7.9 m) shorter than when first constructed.
Robert "Bob" Boyer was a Canadian visual artist and university professor of aboriginal heritage. He was a Métis Cree artist known for his politically charged abstract paintings.
The Cape Forchu Lighthouse is located in Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia. The lighthouse is located 11 km from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
The Little Sable Point Light is a lighthouse located south of Pentwater in the lower peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is in the southwest corner of Golden Township, just south of Silver Lake State Park.
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used.
The Makapuʻu Point Light on the island of Oʻahu has the largest lens of any lighthouse in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The history of lighthouses in Canada dates back to 1734.
James W. Jack Boynton was an American artist.
Josef Alan Levi is an American artist whose works range over a number of different styles, but which are unified by certain themes consistently present among them. Levi began his artistic career in the 1960s and early '70s, producing highly abstract and very modernist pieces: these employing exotic materials such as light fixtures and metallic parts. By 1975, Levi had transitioned to painting and drawing still lifes. At first these were, traditionally, of mundane subjects. Later, he would depict images from art history, including figures originally created by the Old Masters. Around 1980, he made another important shift, this time toward creating highly precise, though subtly altered reproductions of pairs of female faces which were originally produced by other artists. It is perhaps this work for which he is most well known. Since around 2000, Josef Levi has changed the style of his work yet again: now he works entirely with computers, using digital techniques to abstract greatly from art history, and also from other sources.
Low Point Lighthouse is an historic Canadian lighthouse marking the eastern entrance to Sydney Harbour at New Victoria, Nova Scotia, near New Waterford, Nova Scotia. This is one of the earliest and most important light stations of Nova Scotia, one of the first dozen beacons in Nova Scotia to be lit to guide mariners, a classic red-and-white lighthouse still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard.
Tim's Vermeer is a 2013 documentary film, directed by Teller, produced by his stage partner Penn Jillette and Farley Ziegler, about inventor Tim Jenison's efforts to duplicate the painting techniques of Johannes Vermeer, in order to test his theory that Vermeer painted with the help of optical devices.
Jacques Hurtubise (1939–2014) was a Canadian abstract painter, "known for his abstract, brightly coloured acrylic paintings".
Nelson Nunes Lobo, also known as Nelson Lobo is a Capeverdean artist, plastic artist, cubist, impressionist and pointillist.
Helene Marie Fesenmaier was an American painter in acrylic, oil and pastel and sculptor. She initially disliked art when she was young but graduated from Smith College and Yale School of Art. Fesenamier was part of a group who established the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture in 1964. She spent time painting in the Netherlands and visited archaeological sites in Greece, Peru and Yucatán before taking up sculpting in Venezuela when she could not obtain suitable life models to paint and draw on. In 1970, Fesenmaier moved from Venezuela to London, as she combined painting and sculpting. She exhibited her works in major cities and art museums across the globe, and was posthumously inducted into the ISD 88 Hall of Fame in 2017.
