Artist of the Month Dee Smart with her painting Canyon Float.
Linda Strauss-Lewis
The PC Art Club says “thank you” to Dee Smart, February’s Artist of the Month. That’s because between 1994 and 1996 she worked with Bill Cupit, John Balogh and others to help with the formation of PebbleCreek’s original Arts and Crafts Center. Without those visionaries, we might never have become the fantastic club we are now. She taught many classes back then (including watercolor, basic drawing, perspective and more), to give our burgeoning PC artists a good start!
Raised in Boise, Idaho, Dee enjoyed art her entire life, though she wasn’t able to get immersed in it until college. Nonetheless, she won her first award, a gold key from the City of Boise, for her second grade picture of a swan! Says Dee, “I had art classes in elementary and high school. Generally, I was an average student, except in art, where I excelled year after year!”
Dee didn’t attend college straight out of high school. She and her first husband moved to Modesto, California, where she spent eleven years at E & J Gallo Winery and met her future husband Joe Smart. That was during the day. During the evenings, she first attended Modesto Junior College and eventually earned her BA in Art from the University of California at Turlock. Turlock, you ask? The school is known as Turkey Tec, because Turlock is the home of Foster Farms Chickens and Turkeys!
At Modesto Dee was most influenced by the exceptional watercolorist, Dan Petersen. His process was quite unique. He’d begin by applying many color layers to watercolor paper. He’d then save the best parts of each layer with a rubber cement frisket block and then he’d apply another layer. He finished by removing the rubber cement and then fine tune the painting. You can see his outstanding art at www.petersenwatercolor.com. “Watercolor was my favorite medium,” says Dee, “but in college we worked in all mediums, including sculpture — the school had a foundry and I was able to do several bronze pieces using the lost wax process.
When she and her husband Joe retired in 1981 they returned to Idaho. As a member of the Idaho Watercolor Society she had the opportunity to take week-long classes with several American masters including Christopher Schink, Don Andrews and Neta Leland. Says Dee, “I believe these sessions brought me my finest breakthroughs so I always encourage others to take classes whenever they can.”
Always evolving, Dee found gourds around 2007. She says, “I love crafting gourds because the process incorporates all different mediums from colored pencil to ink to acrylics and more. She’s been a member of the Arizona Gourd Society and past president of its local group, Gourd Gypsies.
Canyon Float, Dee’s colorful acrylic painting laid over a Liquitex modeling paste to create texture, accompanies this article. “My intention,” says Dee, “was to create a feeling of floating through the Grand Canyon.”
What inspires her now? “Everything!” she says. “I love the act of creating! We’re all so lucky to have the art opportunities available to PebbleCreek residents!”