Katie Smith is a born and raised Virginian watercolor artist. She received her Associates in Fine Arts from Northern Virginia Community College. She is currently studying at Longwood University and majoring in art with a concentration in painting and drawing. Her intentions are to pursue a career in Art Therapy and to help other people through the process of art making. She is influenced by architecture, women’s history, and fellow watercolor and pen artists. She has had the privilege of being able to learn under Paul Jackson, Ardith Goodwin, and Danny Gregory. She has participated in group exhibitions at Longwood University and will take part in the Senior exhibition in the spring.
Artists that have influenced my work are Hillary Waters Fayle, Paul Jackson and John Singer Sargent. Hillary Waters Fayle is a textile artist who embroiders on to organic materials. I took a workshop that Fayle was teaching on embroidery and how to embroider on material other than fabric. I already knew how to sew before the workshop, but not embroidery. I fell in love with embroidery after the class. I felt relaxed and Zen, similar to how I feel while I am painting or drawing. I started to add small touches of embroidery to my own work to add more texture and depth; there was a lot of trial and error to find out worked with the type of paper I use. I have personally met and worked with Paul Jackson and have even bought his watercolors and brushes. I was his assistant for an art class. Afterward the class ended, he gave me one of his books and signed it. He is a watercolor artist who is well known for his large-scale paintings. Paul Jackson helped me better understand watercolor as a medium and refine my technique. John Singer Sargent’s watercolor paintings are some of my favorite. His use of layering, loose brush strokes give his work amazing texture and pattern. His depiction of light in his paintings are something I strive to achieve in my own paintings. Rhoda Holmes Nicholls’ work, on the other hand, are a lot more meticulous and the paint in her work is lighter and more delicate than Sargent’s. Wendy Artin’s work is primarily watercolor and charcoal. Her work is figurative and classical and explores the interaction of light with the human body and architecture.