Portrait of the Artist with Cello, Terence R. Smith, 2006, Pastel on paper, 19” x 21”

The art of Terence R. Smith reflects the world in which he has lived. He grew up in England at a time when people were kinder to each other than now, as a reaction to the horrors of the Second World War, and before we had destroyed so much of the natural world.

He attended Cambridge University and studied geography, with the goal of understanding the origins and beauty of natural landscapes. He continued this focus in graduate school at Johns Hopkins University, and throughout his career as an academic.

His second career as an artist began in 2003, when he spent time in the English countryside with watercolours and books on painting. Then, through a series of remarkable and caring teachers, he learned techniques for drawing with graphite, chalk, and pastels and for painting with watercolours and oils. He continues his career as an artist from his studio in Maine.

He believes that the style of a picture should be chosen that best represents its content as well as the experience, understanding, and values of the artist. He also believes that successful paintings should have three qualities: telling a story in the mind of the viewer; evoking an emotional response in the heart of the viewer; and offering the viewer a sense of that ineffable quality that we call beauty.

The subjects of his art are chosen to represent the diversity of his world and its emotional associations. The pictures in the artist’s portfolio, seen as a whole, provide a window into the artist’s life and world.