{"id":307,"date":"2012-11-12T10:52:59","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T15:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/?p=307"},"modified":"2013-11-05T17:47:51","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T22:47:51","slug":"robert-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/robert-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Smith was an American artist who died in 1985.\u00a0 When I knew him, he already was an elderly man.\u00a0 He lived with his teenage son in Kettering, Ohio in a French chateau-type building that seemed the height of romance to a high school kid, which was what I was when we met.<\/p>\n

Smith was in the habit of employing high school students as apprentices.\u00a0 I was one of 3-4 apprentices for about 6 months during my senior year.\u00a0 We worked hard for Smith and in exchange, he gave drawing and painting lessons.\u00a0 More than anything else, seeing a full-time artist busy working his craft was a tremendous experience\u2014one of the foundational events of my youth.<\/p>\n

Smith worked us hard, like I said. \u00a0We swept and mopped the studio, cleaned the fireplace, and chopped wood.\u00a0 Smith used his own home-made oil paints so we ground the pigments into his \u2018secret sauce\u2019 medium, and got the paint ready for use.\u00a0 He kept the ground paint in cellophane.\u00a0 He also built his own frames using an ingenious system of cardboard, plaster, linen, and pigment.\u00a0 We spent a lot of times making those frames.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0with him long enough to receive painting lessons, and he was careful not to let any of us see him actually painting.\u00a0 We did get daily drawing lessons which have stood me in good stead ever since. \u00a0He would place fruit, vegetables, and whatnot into a small\u00a0tableau\u00a0\u00a0 We would set ourselves around the still-life and work earnestly over our drawing boards. Smith would circulate among us, making observations about our efforts.\u00a0 He insisted that our drawings consist of a series of parallel lines\u2014all running in the same direction.\u00a0 Vertical lines and planes had to be constructed from horizontal lines, or vice-versa.<\/p>\n

I will always remember how respectfully, almost as if he was holding a holy relic,\u00a0he would take a book of reproductions from his modest library. \u00a0As he turned the book\u2019s pages, he talked to us in hushed, reverent tones about the paintings before us.<\/p>\n

The Dayton Art Institute<\/a> has several of his works, one of which I reproduce here. \u00a0Don\u2019t try to find information about Smith from the Art Institute\u2019s web site.\u00a0 Searching for him produces nothing, although this paining is in their permanent collection and is currently on display, which is how I was able to take this photograph. \u00a0The Art Institute’s web site must be the worst in the country.<\/p>\n

This painting is from early in his career.\u00a0 If memory serves, the museum also has a large work that is reminiscent of Thomas Hart Benton<\/a>\u2019s work from the \u201830\u2019s.\u00a0 During the time I knew him, he was painting landscapes that were somewhat like those of Corot or Homer.\u00a0 The last painting I saw in progress was a landscape with a trout fisherman in a stream.\u00a0 Like Corot<\/a> often did, Smith put a dab of red in the middle of all that green (the fisherman\u2019s hat).<\/p>\n

\"robert_smith\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I salute you, Master.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Smith was an American artist who died in 1985.\u00a0 When I knew him, he already was an elderly man.\u00a0 He lived with his teenage son in Kettering, Ohio in a French chateau-type building that seemed the height of romance to a high school kid, which was what I was when we met. Smith was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,5,139,1],"tags":[8,68,67,66,69],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-museum","category-artists","category-bio","category-uncategorized","tag-artists-2","tag-corot","tag-dayton-art-institute","tag-robert-smith","tag-thomas-hart-benton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":320,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/dayton-art-institute-fail\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":0},"title":"Dayton Art Institute\u2014Fail","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"November 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dayton Art Institute is handsomely situated on a hill above the Great Miami River.\u00a0 The museum\u2019s beautiful Italianate main wing provides a remarkable view of the Dayton skyline.\u00a0 Travelers along I-75 passing beneath the museum\u2019s imposing\u00a0facade can't help but be intrigued by the marvelous piece of architecture. The museum\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6248,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2016\/09\/drawing-drawing-drawing-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":1},"title":"Drawing, drawing, drawing","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"September 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Drawing is the heart and soul of art. \u00a0If the drawing is strong, you have to work hard to screw up a\u00a0painting. \u00a0If the drawing is weak, you have to work hard to just produce mediocrity. I've gone through periods during which I did more drawing than painting, especially when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawings"","block_context":{"text":"Drawings","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/drawings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/ngg_featured\/nude-raised-arms.jpg?fit=400%2C549&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2814,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/robert-blackburn\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":2},"title":"Robert Blackburn","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"December 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"During my weekly visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art I was pleasantly surprised to see a newly-hung lithograph titled Blackburn. In the lithograph by Ron Adams (an artist heretofore unknown to me) I instantly recognized my former mentor Robert Blackburn. Adams portrays Robert doing what he was always doing:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/adams-blackburn.png?fit=400%2C284&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":416,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/timothy-callaghan-life-slow-still\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":3},"title":"Timothy Callaghan\u2014Life Slow Still","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"November 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently paid my second visit to the William Busta Gallery.\u00a0 Busta is one of those cafeteria-style spaces where several shows\u2014about 6 in this case\u2014run concurrently.\u00a0 The artists shown represent, no doubt, an attempt to cast the widest possible net.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, you won\u2019t find a Corot, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/call1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4473,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/robert-koepnick-sculptor\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":4},"title":"Robert Koepnick, sculptor","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"December 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was in high school, my regular habit was to take the bus downtown from my suburban home outside Dayton, Ohio. After rambling about, I always went to the library to read and study. Haunting libraries was a habit I developed from\u00a0my earliest days. Anyway, above the entrance to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Kop-DAI.jpg?fit=427%2C479&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":832,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/carl-gaertner\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":5},"title":"Carl Gaertner","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"January 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday was a lucky day--I discovered an artist new to me: Carl Gaertner\u00a0(1898-1952). \u00a0Gaertner's reputation is almost entirely local \u00a0to Cleveland, as \u00a0Robert Smith's is confined to\u00a0Dayton. Gaertner was born in Cleveland and lived in and around there until his death. \u00a0He taught for many years at the Cleveland Institute\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gaertner: oil","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/gaertner-winter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/gaertner-winter.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/gaertner-winter.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gw6F-4X","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}