MATT SMITH

About this artist

Matthew 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.

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. No one can improve on nature’s landscapes.”