David Lyttleton Smith

Today’s WOW! is an oil painting titled “South Shore” by artist David Lyttleton Smith. It’s about the connection between the artist and his art and how our own perception of a painting can be enhanced by just knowing a little bit more about its author. In this case, it’s about the bond between the artist and the sea. As David told us:

David Lyttleton Smith has lived along the waters of the Eastern Seaboard throughout his life. Starting from his early childhood in Tidewater Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay, to the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean in Northeast Florida where he was raised. Eventually he settled on coastal Long Island where he now lives and works as a professional artist.

His interest in art began as early as his love of the sea, and his abilities were noticed early on.

His first traveling exhibition was in the first grade. David drew a detailed mural of life on a farm on a long sheet of wrapping paper. “The principal was so impressed that it was sent around to all the other schools in the district,” David said. “The best thing about it was they left me alone to draw whenever I wanted to after that.”

Smith took art courses at Florida State University, and then went to Tulane University for his Masters of Fine Arts in Painting, studying under celebrated abstractionist and teacher Pat Trivigno, who had studied under noted New York School artist Phil Guston and American regionalist Thomas Hart Benton, who also taught Jackson Pollock. After graduation at Tulane, Smith taught painting classes there before moving to Miami where he taught painting, figure drawing classes as well as a specialized study of techniques and materials classes at Florida International University.

“I was always fascinated by the painting mediums and processes used by the Old Masters, a subject which wasn’t taught when I was in school, so I did the research and learned how to make my own painting mediums out of traditional materials such as cold pressed oils, balsams, and varnish crystals, and solvents.”

Since relocating to New York, Smith’s work has continued to evolve, including figure painting and commissioned portraiture once again, but his most compelling interest has been seascapes or “marines” as they are known in the art world.

Although he travels to Florida and Maine for inspiration, most of Smith’s marine paintings are based subjects closer to his studio on Long Island’s South Shore, and the East End including Montauk and East Hampton off Gardiner’s Bay. Smith’s paintings and commissioned portraits are in many private collections around the country, and he is now represented by Chrysalis Gallery in Southampton, New York.

David Lyttleton Smith just had his latest painting “South Shore” framed by Stu-Art Supplies. “The folks at Stu-Art Supplies do wonderful work and give your paintings that little something extra that says the work is important and well worth the price,” he recently wrote on his own blog.

Discover more beautiful paintings by David Lyttleton Smith on his website and on his Facebook page.

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