Marshall Ellison Smith Sr.
| Marshall Ellison Smith Sr. | |
|---|---|
 MarshallSmithSr02.jpg Marshall Ellison Smith Sr. | |
| Born | 21 November 1933 |
| 💀Died | 14 May 1999 (aged 65) Alapaha, Ga USA14 May 1999 (aged 65) |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Painting, Sculpture, Printmaking |
| Notable work | DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION FOR MAJOR PUBLISHING HOUSES: Harper & Row Publishers, Scott Foresman, Rand McNally, Lyons and Carnahan, Science Research Associates, Woodall Publishing, Little Brown & Sons, RCA Records, Ampex Records, K-L Recording Studios, Albert Jay Rosenthall Associates, Moulton Goldscholl Associates, University of Miami Press, Topic Magazine, Today’s Health, Field & Stream, AMA, JAMA, ISM Magazine. |
| 🏅 Awards | AWARDS AND HONORS: Most Popular Painting Award State of Florida, Hortt Memorial Award, Artist Guild of Chicago Silver Medal, Woodfield Annual Rand Hurst Fine Art Center Purchase Award, Flagler Museum Purchase Award, St. Augustine National Bicentennial Purchase Award, High Museum Purchase Award Bus., Florida Drawing and Painting Award. Best of Show Awards at: Dayton Annual, Second Annual Florida Drawing Exhibition, Park Forest Art Center – Park Forest, Illinois, Deer Brook Art Center, Wisconsin Annual Drawing Exhibit, Georgia Southwestern College, and many others. REP. PERMANENT COLLECTIONS: Moma – Miami, Florida, The Lowe Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Ferry Hall – Lake Forrest, Illinois, Library of Congress – Washington, D.C., Temple Beth David – Miami Florida, Temple Har Zion – Riverforest, Illinois, Artist Guild of Chicago, Abraham Baldwin College, The Heritage Center Museum, The High Museum, Life of Georgia Insurance Corp. – Park Forest Art Center, The Kortweg-Bredia – Netherlands, Scott Foresman & Co. Publishers, Syd Blackmarr – Arts Experiment Station, American Medical Association, Hames Corp. – North Carolina, Tifton City Hall – Tifton, Georgia, ISM – New York, New York. |
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Marshall Ellison Smith Sr. (21 November 1933 – 14 May 1999) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker. He grew up in central Georgia and was based in Alapaha, Georgia, in the Southeastern United States. He also painted in Miami, Key West, and Chicago.
Marshall's art is an eclectic mix of both whimsical and realistic landscapes and creatures and situations. He drew southern landscapes focusing on the everyday components of the work and the life of the common man of the time. He did not embrace the current movements of modern art or minimalism but followed his own path and focused on honing his craft.
He had the knack to know when a drawing was finished and how much to leave to the viewer's imagination. His watercolors dance with vibrant light. He mastered pen and ink drawing to the point that his spacing and line width can hardly be distinguished from machine generated elements. He had the patience and skill to create dark spaces without overburdening the paper until it wrinkled or separated from the moisture.
Reviews from the artist's bio sheet circa 1980 to 1985:
"Self-taught or not, Smith is not a primitive painter, or a hit-and-miss artist. He is a serious craftsman who understands and practices good form, color, composition, and perspective. He is not confined to one groove, and he hits the jackpot nearly every time, so far as communication is concerned... They have mood. The style may perhaps best be described as poetic realism. In these paintings the line is rather soft and melting, but this is not overdone. Smith is one artist to put your money on."
Doris Reino
Miami Herald Art Review
"Marshall Smith's new work at the Chicago Artist Guild is a must see. We liked the small watercolor titled 'Paddy look what you're doing to yourself' best only because of its social impact. We are looking forward to this artist's next exhibition."
Art Reviewer for the
Chicago Sun Times
"To see a Smith exhibit as I have just seen is to stand with the Renaissance Artist, he is truly one. The sheer power and beauty of his work at the Baker Gallery is astonishing."
Lester Hemingway
Miami News
From the artist himself on the same bio sheet:
Marshall Smith knew from his earliest years that he wanted to be an artist. The seasons of his childhood were divided between the then-rural countryside around Miami, Florida, and the gently rolling farmland of southern Georgia. Those early scenes provided subject matter and inspiration for the mature artist, as well as for his younger self. Later travel and experience have had their effect as well. Few artists have led a less sedentary life: Smith served in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict; raced cars on the CAN-AM circuit; did salvage driving with Jack Slack; played bit parts for Ivan Tours films; and sold everything from shoes to sewing machines to baby grand pianos. During all those years, he continued to draw and paint, to exhibit and teach.
Marshall Smith is one of a group of painters whose work defies classification, for he is as equally at home with Impressionism and Abstraction, as he is with Realism. The artist's overall work is poetic in approach, sensitively conceived and speaks to the viewer. Currently he is involved in a series of realist paintings that reflect the landscapes which shaped his vision in early childhood. Yet his artist's eye is not clouded by nostalgia; he looks anew at familiar scenes and paints them in a clear light.
Marshall began life without a father or siblings. His mother Pauline later married William Perry and they had William Jr, Pauline, and . They resided near Morgan, Georgia and William Sr. worked at Cordray's Mill for a while.
Marshall joined the Army in 1949 and served as a medic in South Korea until they found out his true age.
Morgan is just a few miles north of Elmodel, which is where he met his first wife Billie Sue Swann. He drove the bus for Lakeside Baptist Church Just south of Elmodel. He had become a deeply religious man until he met her. She had a child, Lucille, and they were married in 1952.
They first lived in a log cabin off Dias Road next to Billie Sue's Aunt's house. They later moved to Albany where Marshall worked as a fireman while practicing his art.
They had 6 children before the divorce in 1958. Two boys died as infants.
He moved to Key West where he bartended at Sloppy Joe's Bar and hobnobbed with the Hemingways. He even traded time in his studio to Leicester Hemingway (his boat was too small) for one of Picasso's pen and ink drawings (probably done to pay some bill).
He remarried and moved to Miami for a while then divorced again and moved to Chicago. He later returned to Miami.
He later moved to Alapaha, Georgia and married Doctor Gaye Elder.
Some of his art is listed below. First is his line art. What is best about them is what you won't see: No feathering, bleed-through, ink blobs, or oversaturation; no overworking, no dabbing, scraping, or cover-up. The lines are
One of a large body of line art, this stately vulture (or buzzard as it is usually called in the south) is a complex combination of dark and white space that demonstrates skill and patience with a pen. The bird's dark body feathers and the darkness of the woods were achieved with no soaking of the paper or tearing. Each line is visible in fine detail and the mottling is unique for each surface it portrays. The bird's dark feathers are shaded with a different stroke than the surrounding darkness of the woods and the heavily applied ink was patiently applied, preventing the paper from becoming soaked and tearing or delaminating. The use of white space leads the eye from the left of the drawing to the bird then blends into the foreboding dark of the woods, as if to remind us of the closeness of death. A trademark motiff in this painting is a small orb in the upper left corner, an object he put into many of his paintings, but never divulged the meaning of, leaving interpretation to the viewer.
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