About

Short Bio

Originally from upstate New York, Ted Smith is a recent transplant to the Carolinas, having moved from Vermont in 2022. Primarily a plein air artist, Ted is drawn to the landscape and its continual state of change — changes in the season, changes in growth and composition, changes in the light. He works in a variety of media, including oils, watercolor, pastels, pencil, and charcoal.

Statement

Since my youth in Upstate New York, I have always had a passion for nature. While I paint many subjects, my first love has always been the landscape, be it a rocky shoreline, a mis-tended farm, or a sparkling sandy beach. My efforts are not so much to capture a particular place or moment in time as much as a state of being, of presence, both of the environment and my place within it. I love to feel the landscape before I paint: the warmth of solid ground, the smell of the cool, the sound of wind in the grass and trees. I am drawn to the continual state of change – changes in the season, in growth, and in composition – but particularly changes in light. Light, even the lack of it, infuses everything. It shapes and defines our world, moves without effort in and out, forward and back. I want to feel that light, that solidity, that cool, to move with that freedom, and to ultimately put it on a surface to share.