| Arts & Entertainment - Friday, March 23, 2007
Art that speaks for itself
Humble painter is content to let his vivid acrylics be his voice
by Rebecca Wallace
Like the artist himself, Albert Smith's paintings are humble at heart.
Filled with thick, confident brushstrokes, they beckon the viewer with color: bright tones reminiscent of sunsets, ripe limes, open summer skies. But they're all inspired by simple sketched drawings.
In his Menlo Park studio, Smith offers a shy smile.
"I draw mostly with that pen right there," he says -- and points at a black Sharpie marker.
A basic tool for a regular guy.
Smith has been a successful painter and art gallery owner for 50-some years, running the Atherton Gallery in Menlo Park from 1959 to 2006. He's had solo shows in Japan and London, and the Chelsea Art Gallery in Palo Alto currently has an Albert Smith retrospective on. But you have to read his bio to learn these things.
Smith doesn't toot his own horn or offer flowery descriptions of his creative process. (He even asked a Weekly reporter not to put his picture on the cover.) He's simply a self-trained artist whose work seems just to flow.
First he does drawings, sometimes hundreds of them. They're often inspired by buildings and shapes he sees from hotel windows during Europe trips.
"Then I go through the drawings and something appeals to me. Things subconsciously develop," he said.
Smith typically finishes his paintings -- mostly abstracts, some still lifes -- in one sitting. Because acrylic paint dries so fast, he washes his brushes every 10 minutes.
Then, he has a refreshing way of letting his paintings go. He purposely leaves them untitled, allowing viewers' interpretations to go where they will.
Welcoming yet soft-spoken, he seems content during an interview to hold up painting after painting and let a Weekly reporter and photographer chatter away: "It's a harp!" "That looks like a building."
The paintings ripple with energy, lines and curves. In recent years, his colors have become more intense. A curator for the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara once wrote, "It is never night in an Albert Smith painting."
In contrast, Smith's earlier work shown in the Chelsea exhibit has a more muted palette. Lines and colors are subtle and the shapes two-dimensional, huddling close to the canvas or museum board they're painted on. Over time, as seen on the Chelsea walls, Smith moved toward more sculptural forms, making his shapes pop out with shadows and angles.
Hanging the show, gallery director Tenley Bick also included some of Smith's still lifes, creating interesting juxtapositions. Angled lines in one abstract work echo a still life's scatter of knives. In another painting, a knife and fork are crossed on a plate, their lines opposite a rosy strawberry.
Gallery owner Suzanne Mohan is especially fond of several cheery paintings of teapots. "I'm English, so I really liked these," she said, laughing.
Mohan, who lives in Atherton, has known Smith for years. She often visited his gallery, buying paintings by other artists before realizing that he was a painter, too. He ended up giving her advice when she was setting up the Chelsea gallery in 2005, and she returned the favor with a solo show.
This is the first time the Chelsea gallery has shown so much abstract art; it typically focuses on more representational pieces, generally by British artists. Mohan said abstract art can be more difficult for viewers to relate to but that Smith's local connections make his work more familiar and accessible -- many Chelsea visitors know him or his former gallery.
Smith opened the Atherton Gallery in 1959, when he and his wife, Barbara, a watercolor painter, moved to Menlo Park from San Francisco. He enjoyed hosting one-artist shows, many featuring Bay Area graduate students.
"I did this (hosted exhibits) every month for 17 years," Smith recalled. "But I was so busy framing, doing exhibits, etc., that I neglected my own painting."
So he stopped holding exhibits but continued running the gallery, having "one show after another" of his own work in locales as far-flung as the Marunouchi Gallery in Tokyo, the Anthony Ralph Gallery in London and the Perimeter Gallery in Chicago. He has paintings in several permanent collections, including the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and the Oakland Museum.
The "biggest thrill" for Smith was exhibiting in London; his family is from England and his parents were born there.
Smith closed his gallery last year, when his lease was up and after deciding to concentrate on his own painting. Now he's setting up his studio on University Drive in downtown Menlo Park, where he will paint, display art in the window, and host visitors by appointment. The 19-by-12-foot space already has shelves of paintings and a fluffy dog bed on the floor for his cocker spaniel, who won't need an appointment.
Smith frames his own work, and during an interview he picks up one painting in a wooden frame that's as unpretentious as he is.
"I've put this frame on about five paintings. The paintings sell, but no one wants the frame." He smiles, finding a silver lining. "It's my lucky frame."
What: "Now and Then," a solo show of paintings by Albert Smith
Where: Chelsea Art Gallery, 440 Kipling St., Palo Alto
When: Through April 1, with hours by appointment
Cost: Free
Info: Call the Chelsea gallery at 650-324-4450 or go to www.chelseaartgallery.com. Smith's studio can be reached at 650-321-5759.
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