Joshua Smiths oil paintings are a fusion of landscape and still life converging into an impossible reality that creates an anomaly of forms and space. Often called "Dreamscapes" for the dreams he credits with inspiring his work, his paintings are a medium of ideas, the intangible qualities in life that can be seen through nature. Taking clues from architecture and religion, Smith's paintings are a reflection of art and faith. Referencing artists as diverse as Salvador Dali and Odilon Redon as influences, Smith's subtle landscape paintings with their muted, dream-like palette have surprising strength.. Their beauty belies the undercurrent of intellect that flows electrically through their elegant compositions. One look and it is as if the painting is your subconscious come to light.
His works are filled with symbolism and allegory. His "Sacred Anomalies" series represents not physical attributes in the likeness of a face, but intangible virtues and infirmities of character and soul. His "Transition" series speaks of finding a moment to look back to where we have been and redirect our path. Night to day, darkness to night, a renewal, solemn to sublime, a metamorphosis healing what is broken. The bridge, a stable crossing and the distant prize, suddenly illuminated. The broken chair losing its structure becomes a new creation. The aging tree house faithfully stands with remarkable hope illuminated from within. All are emblems of transition.
Joshua Smith's paintings reveal a sense of risk taking and of constant exploration, done during the act of painting. They begin simply as landscape oil paintings, realistic, yet with a strong tendency to lean toward abstraction. They combine direct and indirect painting methods, observation of an actual place and the interpretation of that place through paint and solvents. The artist applies and drips solvents mixed with glazes onto the surface of each painting, activating the surface, sometimes complementing the imagery and sometimes confounding it. This process could never be controlled precisely therefore the appearance of the finished painting could never be predicted. Smith uses glazing and alla-prima painting methods to create a range of clarity and diffusion. Only an artist trained in the strict regimens of classical painting and technique could accomplish paintings with such a heart of abstraction
Joshua Smith has exhibited nationwide from California to Massachusetts in many juried group exhibitions and many solo shows. He was awarded best new solo artist at the New York International Art Expo. He was invited to participate in Paris at the Louvre as part of the Salon of the Societe Nationale des Beaux- Arts Exhibition. He received his BFA from the Art Institute of Southern California and his Master's Degree in Fine Art from the Hartford Art School.
