Impressions of Nature by Lisa Ransom Smith

I’m getting back to do what I love – creating works of art. Getting personal, I went through a divorce. It was good. It was bad. I knew I would have to give up my creative side in order to earn a living, but I would be free to be me. My kids are older so I have more free time to create. Creating is life. I feel alive again.

I’m focusing on graphite. Like many artists, it was my first real medium. And I enjoy drawing. It’s relaxing and challenging. While impressive, photo-realism is not my goal, although my portraits and animal drawings tend to be more so, I want to capture the beauty, the feeling of a place. While there may be nothing particularly beautiful about a winter field full of dormant plants, I look at the potential, dormant coming back to life, and the composition – the act of directing the viewers eye.

Referring to my works on Toned Paper: They’re impressionistic, somewhat dreamy, sublime representations of the landscape. I use my own photo reference. No AI created art here! A friend of mine told me that these pieces feel like lithographs.

My water-graphite works took on a radically different feel. Clouds, being the subject matter, naturally lead me to the idea that instead of drawing literal clouds, I could instead allow the medium to do its thing, allowing me to enhanced what I saw in the clouds, giving the works an Expressionistic feel.

I achieved artistic success locally in my days before children. I know that others appreciate and enjoy my work. Early on in my career, the museum director curated a show and asked me personally to participate in an impressionistic landscape exhibit. My piece was hung right next to a Thomas Moran painting. What a feeling! What an honor!

Creating for me is just something I need to do. Several years ago, when Paul McCartney put out another album, I remember someone criticizing him, asking how much money does he need. Oh my goodness! For creatives, they just need to create.

About collecting art: Some are intimidated by collecting art, but should not be. The late art historian Kenneth Clark once remarked about the reasons for collecting; “It’s like asking why we fall in love, the reasons are so various”.