Conversations with Andrea Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Smith.

Hi Andrea, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I was pregnant and watching the Vietnam war on television. I sat with my hands on my stomach and thought this was something I can’t support. Then I had a beautiful baby boy and I held him and watched the same news. I said to myself I am never sending this child to fight in a war. I asked what I could do and I was told, if you want peace on Earth, find peace within. I was 24 and it didn’t register.

When I had my daughter we were discussing drafting women. I got the same answer about peace within is the answer. I was also told I can’t hate anything and change it. I would have to love the opposite of war. I began to focus on peace and how one achieved it. I learned one way was to find something you loved to do and do it. After teaching for 9 years I went back to my art and started painting. I took some nonaccredited classes and saw I could paint. A gallery near my home took 11 unframed watercolors on consignment and sold them all.

We moved to Maui Hawaii in 1981. I got into Lahaina Gallery and my real career began then. I started painting to music on the radio and the President and other newsworthy people showed up in them and I didn’t know why. I finally realized I was so open I took in all the words between the music… the news! So then I began listening to music without words like Kitaro.

Pretty soon the message of the balance between the male and females began to appear. The rainbow people, the way the planet is. Also, a very peaceful face that reminds me of when my children were babies. The Mother and Child is another image I paint.

I showed with Lahaina Galleries until I opened my own Gallery in Sedona Arizona in 2000. The entire gallery is devoted to the feeling of peace. We have paintings and sculptures of Buddha, Quanyin, and Ganesha.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When I moved to Hawaii there were primarily male artists and whale artists. My abstract realism as I call it was not a popular venue. The timing was right for another perspective but it had not caught on yet. I was the only female artist in our Gallery. There was one other who did not live there and did shows occasionally. I also didn’t get to hang in a great space initially. I was put in a room where they packed paintings. Thank God my husband started to work there.

Actually, he was told if you come to work for us, we will sell her paintings. So he did. I would tell people they are about peace within as a way to have peace on Earth and they would say to me ” who cares about peace?!? I want to make money.”

It was not easy being different but I came to Earth to deliver a message and I was determined to do it.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I paint in primarily watercolor and I also work in pastels. I love to just go to a blank sheet and start to create. I don’t think and I honestly go into rarified air. I don’t think about the next color until I finish the one I am working on. I know when a piece is done when no other color pops in.

My work acts as an observational meditation. My intent is to offer peace or healing to the viewer. I have gotten enough feedback and have been doing it long enough to know it’s working.

I am known as a peace artist. I have done World Peace Conferences in Amsterdam and San Francisco and presented and done workshops. I also presented paintings to Norman Lear and Deepok Chopra.

My work is original. I was only influenced by my passion for peace. I have never seen anything similar… but to be honest I don’t pay that much attention to other artists. Just my artist friends’ works.

What’s next?
I am 76. I am at peace and I have enough paintings to last a few lifetimes. I delivered a message. I was told that it wouldn’t be in any particular order but I will know when I was done. The paintings flew through me. I was a hollow vessel and they were lined up waiting to be expressed. I used to say all I have to do is put a brush in my hand.

Initially, I could paint 2-3 22×30 watercolors a day. After many years it became one a day. Then one every couple of days. Slowly I was creating less but it was years. I did a painting called “Breathe” and right after I finished it I had a brain aneurysm and stopped painting for years. I started again but not the way I used to paint.

I don’t do it for hours on end. I have no need to rush it. I really delivered what I had to and when I painted it out…. I don’t have the same need to paint. I am planning a retrospective at our Gallery and N is in the process of writing a book.

Contact Info:

• Website: Andreasmithgallery.com

Image Credits
Andrea Smith Mother & Child of Sedona by Andrea Smith, Breathe by Andrea Smith, Seeing Eye to Eye by Andrea Smith, Rainbow of Humanity by Andrea Smith