Featured Artist Renee Smith

Relying on the old masters for inspiration and instruction, featured artist Renee Smith still manages to put her own twist on nature’s beauty.  Working in oil, acrylic and watercolor, she strives to blend the most precisely realistic of foregrounds with the emotive brushstroke of an impressionist background.  “There are so many beautiful things to paint, and Renaissance masters like Michaelangelo and DaVinici perfected realism, so I study them and find inspiration in them every day.”

"Red Rose" by Renne C. Smith
Printed on Canson Arches Aquarelle Watercolor Paper
Framed in Reflections Modern Pewter RF469
with double acid free mat board

Based in Mill Valley, California, Smith began her education as a fashion designer but switched quickly to fine art and has been a painter ever since.  Previously represented by a gallery in Madison, Florida where she lived, Smith brings her art to others through education as well.  For two years she taught art at the college level in Cambodia, where living conditions were brutally simple but the people and culture were a source of great joy and inspiration.  These days Smith is teaching the younger generation of artists at Golden Gate Academy preschool near her home. 

The featured piece, “Red Rose” is an acrylic on canvas in the original.  Smith selected it because she was thinking of the mothers in her life, as many of us do around this time of year.  “Mothers have depth, beauty and complexity like this rose.

Smith came to American Frame in search of an online gallery and was thrilled to see her work become available at an affordable price to people across the country.  When she frames her work, she considers the context as well as the piece itself.  “I use more substantial, traditional frames in offices and more personal choices for homes.”

We’ve framed “Red Rose” to emphasize the blend of realism and impressionism characteristic of Smith’s style.  The aluminum frame is from our newest collection, Reflections.  Rendered in a traditional beveled profile made modern with crisp edges and a pewter finish as a twist on the more classic silver, the frame bridges the gap between modern and traditional, realistic and impressionistic.  The bottom accent mat in lichen takes its cue from the flower’s gray-greens leaves while the dominant top mat in antique white provides a neutral break between frame and image without distracting from the shock of color that is a rose in full bloom.