Smith hones skills at internationally known art center

     Campbell University’s Breck Smith, associate professor of art, recently completed a four-week residency at the renowned Vermont Studio Center (VSC) in Johnson, Vt. Founded in 1984, VSC is the largest international artists’ and writers’ residency program in the United States, hosting 600 outstanding painters, sculptors, writers, photographers and poets each year. Smith said he was thrilled to be included in such a talented group.

     “It is pretty competitive,” he said. “There were about 50 people in our group and they were all extremely talented. At first I was intimidated, but we bonded immediately and became each other’s support.”

     As an art resident painter, Smith received a private studio space, open 24 hours a day, and the sage advice of well-known visiting artists and writers who are invited to participate. He especially valued the opinion of Lois Dodd, an internationally known painter whose style is similar to his own.

      Dodd’s work has been described as residing somewhere between realism and abstraction, infused with the careful consideration of nature’s role in perception.

     “Over the years, I’ve noticed that certain themes have emerged in my painting,” Smith once said in an interview. “Although I never come close, I try to capture the beauty in the world that I feel God wants us to see.”

     Smith’s objective for the residency was to learn how to work in a more minimalist way. “I’ve also become fascinated with moving water,” he said. “The visiting artists gave me tips on how to work with moving water and how to capture the water’s eddies and currents through the use of line.”

     Smith graduated from Averett College in Danville, Va., with a Bachelor of Art degree in 1980. He received a Master of Fine Arts in 1982 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

     Smith’s paintings have been selected for inclusion in the 2003 Bowery Gallery National Competition in New York and the 10th National Juried Show at the Art Center of Northern New Jersey, as well as the North Carolina Artists Exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. He also received a Visual Art Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council, and was featured in a two-person show at the Chapel Hill Public Library. Works by Smith were also featured in the 2006 “Southern Landscape” exhibition at the Lee Hansley Gallery in Raleigh.