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Matthew Read Smith
was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1960, and at the age of
three moved with his family to Scottsdale, Arizona. Later, they
moved to Europe where they lived two years in France and one in
Switzerland. In subsequent years, Matt painted in Germany,
Austria, and Italy. He has lived most of his life in Arizona,
where he developed a deep attachment to and respect for the
Sonoran Desert. |
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Matt graduated from Arizona State University
with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting. Somewhat
disappointed with the school’s abstract-oriented art program, he
spent significant personal time studying the traditional styles
of such landscape masters as Maynard Dixon, William
Herbert Dunton, and Edgar Payne.
Most of the time, Matt can be found painting
en plein air from southern Arizona to the Canadian Rockies
or from the California coast to the mountains of Colorado. He
comments: "I respect the tradition behind classical landscape
painting, and I’m particularly inspired by pristine locations.
I enjoy working in areas where one can travel for miles without
seeing the influence of man. When I paint, I feel I’ve hit the
mark when I’ve captured a balance between mood, look, and feel.
You know you’ve succeeded when viewers sense the desert heat, or
the chill of a mountain snowfall, or the mist hanging over a
lake. No one can improve on nature’s landscapes." |
