PERSIMMON CREEK WRITERS AND ARTISTS RESIDENCY – BYRON SMITH
Byron Smith was born in Columbia, Missouri, in 1960. He attended the University of Missouri – Columbia, where he pursued drawing, painting and printmaking within the Fine Arts Department. From 1992 to 1996, he co-owned Columbia’s Mythmaker Gallery. He has been a member of the North Village Art District’s Grindstone Printmaking Shop, and he is currently a member of the Orr Street Artist Guild, where he occupies a studio.
As a painter, Smith works in oil, watercolor and casein. He is best known for his landscapes of the Missouri River Valley. Smith also studies anatomical drawing and enjoys working from the human figure when not in the landscape. Additionally, inspired by his interest in local and regional Missouri history, Smith collects works on paper and prints. Smith’s paintings appear in multiple collections, among them the State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia; The Museum of Art and Archeology at the University of Missouri; the Walters Gallery of the Boone County History & Culture Center; the Ashby-Hodge Gallery of American Art at Central Methodist University; the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia; and numerous private collections.
Works by and about Byron Smith include:
Byron Smith at Orr Street Studio
“Byron Smith: Meet the Artist and His Legacy Landscapes,” a profile of the artist in Missouri Life Byron Smith Paints the Center for Missouri Studies, a short film released (via YouTube) by the State Historical Society of Missouri
Byron Smith: Painting Missouri, an exhibit at the Columbia Art League
“Columbia Native Byron Smith,” a review of Painting Missouri in the Columbia Daily Tribune
“Heart Beat Artist of the Month: Byron Smith,” a profile of the artist in the Columbia Heart Beat “Caretakers of Culture,” a profile of University of Missouri employees preserving and promoting Black history, featuring an overview of Byron Smith and his family’s relationship to Columbia, Missouri’s Sharp End neighborhood
INFO? Contact the Residency at [email protected] or visit www.persimmoncreekwritersandartistsresidency.com