Artist Statement

Carl Smith - Artist Statement

Carl Smith is an abstract landscape painter who lives and works in East Austin, Texas. His paintings explore composition and texture through the use of heavy impastos and aggressive brushwork, spontaneously creating paintings with an emphasis on form and structure.

Carl has made art from a very early age and took all the public school art classes available to him. Growing up in poverty made it all but impossible for Carl to pursue a direct course of study. Leaving the rough inner city of Houston of the 1980’s Carl moved to Austin in the 1990’s; a short career as a jazz musician ensued before he dedicated himself fully to the world of painting.

From 2010-2011, Carl studied studio painting and drawing at the Dougherty Arts School and the Laguna Gloria Art School while also studying privately with local Austin artist Philip Trussell. In the course of his studies he dabbled in different styles of painting before deciding to focus on abstract landscapes. He feels abstraction places emphasis on emotion and direct creative decision-making resulting in unique paintings. He also makes paintings of tax forms.

Having explored many painting styles he eventually settled on one that allows for improvisation and action-oriented execution in which he can engage as much of his creative abilities as possible. Carl seeks to make the act of creation central to the content of his paintings.