With Kim's permission, I am very pleased to share a few examples of WAS's magnificent work from that catalogue with you today.
We will very certainly be revisiting the life and work of William A. Smith in the future. Kim, her brother Rick, and her mom, Ferol, have all been relating some great anecdotes that you will eventually get to read here. And I have been scanning more of Smith's art from my magazine collection to accompany those stories.
But that's for another time. For now, enjoy these images at full size in my William A. Smith Flickr set.
I was surfing the internet tonight looking for a painting I remember by James Montgomery Flag, (the turn of the century illustrator)...and while searching,I came across William.A. Smith's name and somehow I found this blog...What a wonderful thing for you to do for him...
ReplyDeleteI met Bill Smith around 1963 at his home and studio on Windy Bush Road outside of New Hope, PA...He invited me to have lunch with him and his wife...
But let me digress..At that time I was living in Columbia, SC...I was a "wet behind the ears" illustrator for the SC ETV...I was 27 years old and newly married, and a new father
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One Sunday morning, I came across a beautifully painted portrait of Carl Sandburg on the cover of the Sunday magazine suppliment...It was done by William A. Smith...It was so good I decided to write a letter to him and let him know how much I enjoyed his artwork...Well a short time later I received a thank you note from him with an invitation to visit with him if I should ever get up his way in Pennsylvania...
Wow...did that blow my mind...
A month later in a Volkswagon bug...
after I delivered my mother-in-law and brother-in-law to their home in southern Ohio... I decided to head East to visit with Mr.Smith... He met me at his door which was one of those half doors they have on barns...It turned out his home was in an old Pennsylvania Dutch barn...He was the most generous person with his time and conversation...He had two studios...The smaller one had memorbilia he brought back with him from the Far East...He told me about his trips as a member of UNESCO...
His wife (who I believe he said was French) had prepared a wonderful Curried Chicken dinner which they asked me to share with them...To my surprise...We ate apples for dessert...Their paring knives were minature Samurai swords ...Bill said that eating an apple after dinner is good for digestion...
I still remember that...