We are pleased to exhibit new watercolors by  well known Washington artist, Mike Smith.  

Mike Smith was born in 1942 in Portland, Oregon, and spent his childhood  growing up in S.W. Washington, and the Puget Sound area. He now resides in  a small community located on the shores of the Columbia  River.

He graduated from the University of Portland with a degree in  English Literature. Smith began drawing and sculpting at the age of two, after  an interlude of baseball, he became a serious full-time artist at the age of  twenty-five. He supported himself doing graphic design and other commercial art  endeavors while pursuing his fine art career.

He has tried to abandon any  "school" of painting and uses an autobiographical approach. His subjects are  mostly found in his backyard or around the neighborhood in which he lives. His  dogs, the cat, his rowboat, and ducks in his pond, are all included in the  bright watercolors of his paintings. He also sculpts in bronze, paints in oils  and does silk screen prints.

Smith says, "People always want to know the  meaning of my work and where I get my ideas from.  My work is simply about the  people and places and animals I love. Images, unlike the written word, do not  dictate to you. After twenty-five years of painting almost every day, it has  become my world." It is fun-filled, colorful, and full of life.

Over the  years, Smith has had more than 50 one-man shows. One of the most interesting was  a double show in Leipzig, Germany - in a gallery at the American Consulate. The  media he uses includes watercolor, pastel, bronze (cast and fabricated), oil,  ceramic, wood, and several printmaking techniques.