Battle
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PAGE 21

ACCLAIMED WILDLIFE artists Keith and Arlene Smith
have move! from the uny B.C. community of Wycliffe to
West Vancouver to be near the art community here.

Keith Smith, one of Canada’s
first. wildlife artists. and wife
Arlene feft the small British Col-
umbia community to be “more in
touch”? with the art scene.

Laboring 10 to 12 hours a day in
the studio portion of their Es-
quimalt Avenue home, Smith
paints primarily landscapes, saving
wildlife painting as a rather time-
consuming but highly accurate and
internationally acclaimed speciali-
ty.

While living in the Kootenay
community of Wycliffe. Keith, 63,
worked with big game outfitters
and got a first-hand look at the big
game — from the inside,

By shinning them and studying
their anatomy, the artist learned
the intimate details that improved
his later wildlife paintings ‘by
about 50 per cent.”’

Lessons learned frem anatomy
examinations gave the artist: need-
ed knowledge to make his works
even more accurate. ‘Unless
you've done these things you
would never know or even be
aware of (the details),"" says the
formicr illustrator.

Working right in the field, Smith
makes small sketches and notes,
from which will later come the
larger work. He always visits the

By SEEPHEN BARRINGTON
News Reporter

scenes that he puints.

“Hf you've been there and
you've seen Hh, something seems to
just rub off.”

Artists working from photos of
ureas they have never seen often
produce works Jacking the feeling
and mood of the scene, which anly
comes from being there.

A veteran of wildlife art from
1982 — in the same ik as Nick
Grandmaison and Carl Rungius —
Smith feels that wildlife art today
is commercial and trendy.

Wildlife artists such as Robert
Bateman and his many imitators,
says Smith, have ‘clever agents’
and have benefited from the stvle's
trendy popularity.

Wite Arlene Smith, 55, works in
pastels and creates mostly head
studies and some full body pieces.
Her work, too, has been praised
for its great accuracy,

The B.C. government owns an
Arlene Smith pastel of an owl in
flight, a fine exaniple of her ver-
satility and. skills. Works feature
song birds and other birds of prey
as well as the majestic heads of
some of Canada's horned wildlife.

Despite the public’s perception
of *good* — or saleable -— wildlife
art, bath Keith and Arlene say they
will coniinue to paint whatever
they want to see.

“True artists will paint what
they want to paint regardless of the
market,’” says Keith, who prefers a
realistic style. ‘We paint what we
want to paint.”*

WILDLIFE ARTISTS
works at their West Vi
North Shore from the East Kootensys,

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Keith and Arlene Smith display two of their fine
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