David Orrin Smith, (1986 – )
Address: 2219 Fairview Ave E #12, Seattle, WA 98102
Cell: 206.992.1230
Email: David@DavidOSmithArtist.com
Website: DavidOSmithArtist.com
Substack: https://davidorrinsmith.substack.com/

Full Video of Painting Process, here:
https://davidorrinsmith.substack.com/p/full-plein-air-watercolor-painting

References:

Gary Faigin
Co-Founder, Gage Academy of Art, Seattle, WA
Phone: (206) 291 – 6382
Email: gary@gageacademy.org

Biography

David Orrin Smith
Visual Artist, Plein Air Landscape Painter and Draughtsman

David has been drawing and painting his entire life.  His development was encouraged by mentorship under artists Gary Faigin and Tony Ryder.  In 1999, at age 13, David was admitted to adult life drawing sessions at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art (now Gage) under Gary, a formative experience establishing figure work as a fixture in his creative production.

From 2004-2008 he continued his art study at Dartmouth College as well as pursuing his own professional art practice beyond the classroom.  From 2008-2011, while getting his Master’s at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, he kept up a rigorous practice of art making, specifically explorations in figure and landscape, combining these interests in an optional Masters’ Thesis project on landscape design for the somatic (embodied) senses.  In 2021 he spent six months painting oil portraiture and still life in Santa Fe, returning to Seattle in fall of 2021 to his home city, focusing on plein air watercolor landscapes, graphite portraiture, and a variety of other media, subject and scale.

In his art, David chases after difficulty, in media and subject. Watercolor as a media, its permanence, its honesty in showing the full process of making, without the ability to correct or hide, has provided a 20-year ongoing challenge. He loves the immediacy of painting en plein air, outside, from life, to share the stories of atmosphere, mood, light of day, the specificity of place and time. The making of a plein air landscape watercolor painting is coupled to the actual lived time spent observing the landscape change, and cannot be thematically separated from the image – the image is an expression of many moments, of a passage of time, not the camera’s single instant.

The effect of the work, but more importantly, the feeling of making such work, is valuable to David beyond estimate. As time goes by, and his skills have improved, he is now able to make compelling landscape work in watercolor in a large scale (up to 40 x 60 inches so far) in a short time frame, as little as 30 minutes. David portrays the idiosyncrasies of a time and place, on location, in a way that can transport the audience to that location as well, to remind them of their own experiences.

Through the discovery of Plein Air Festivals, David is able to find a lifestyle of sharing the artwork he makes with new audiences in new places – to allow them to better value where they are, to give people a chance to connect with original artwork made in real time as they watch. Yes, the outcomes are paintings, but the process is performance art, public art.

Education

Harvard University Graduate School of Design, https://www.gsd.harvard.edu, Cambridge, MA
– 2008-2011, Master’s in Landscape Architecture, (MFA Equivalent, Terminal Design Degree), Optional Independent Thesis: “The Body In Landscape: Landscape Design for the Somatic Senses”

Dartmouth College, https://home.dartmouth.edu, Hanover, NH
– 2004-2008, Cum Laude, BA in Italian with Optional Honors Thesis

Awards / Recognitions

2025

1st Place Plein Air, Desert Plein Air

2024

Best Water, Best New Artist, Blue Ribbon (x2), 2nd Place – Nocturne, Eagle Plein Air
Best of Show, Humboldt County Paint Out
2nd Place, Artist’s Choice, Escalante Art Festival
Best Of Show – Watercolor, Mendocino Open Paint Out
3rd Place, Gualala Plein Air Festival
1st Place Bozeman Art Museum Purchase Prize, Plein Air Montana
1st Place Grand Prize Quick Draw (and auto-invite for Plein Air Easton 2025), Plein Air Easton
1st Place Juror’s Prize, Tubac Center for the Arts, Tubac, AZ, “Arizona Aqueous XXXVIII” Group Exhibition

2023

1st Place, Colorado Watercolor Society, Denver, CO, “CWS Member Show” Group Exhibition
1st Place, Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI, “Falling Into Winter” Group Exhibition
1st Place, Watermedia, Josephy Center for Arts and Culture, Joseph, OR, “41st Annual Wallowa Valley Festival of the Arts” Group Exhibition
1st Place, San Diego Watercolor Society, San Diego, CA, “Plein Air” Group Exhibition
1st Place Juror’s Prize, Northwind Art, Port Townsend, WA, “Weather or Not, Plein Air Show” Group Exhibition
1st Place, Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI, “Amazing Space” Group Exhibition
1st Place Landscape, Gage Academy of Art, Seattle, WA, “The Best of Gage” Group Exhibition
Peter Hopper Award for Excellence, Northstar Watermedia Society, Hudson, WI, “National Watermedia Juried Competition”, Group Exhibition
Special Recognition, Southwestern Watercolor Society, Dallas, TX, “60th annual Membership Exhibition”, Group Exhibition
Honorable Mention, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Brownsville, TX, “48th International Art Show” Group Exhibition

Residencies / Festivals

2025 (including upcoming confirmed)

Desert Plein Air, Palm Desert, CA, January
Teche Plein Air, New Iberia, LA, March
Paint The Town, Marble Falls, TX, April
PNW Plein Air, Columbia Gorge, WA April
North Carolina Plein Air, New Bern, NC, May
Paint Cedarburg, Cedrburg, WI, June
Paint Grand Traverse, Petoskey, MI, June
Plein Air Easton, Easton, MD, July
Plein Air Montana, Bozeman, MT, July
Eagle Plein Air, Eagle, ID, October

2024

Two Rivers Plein Air, New Braunfels, TX, https://www.thenewbraunfelsartleague.com/two-rivers-plein-air-2024.html, October
Eagle Plein Air, Eagle, ID, https://www.eaglepleinair.com/, October
Humboldt County Paint Out, Eureka, CA, https://www.redwoodart.net/event-details/humboldt-open-paint-out-2024, October
Escalante Art Festival, Escalante, UT, https://escalantecanyonsartfestival.org/, September
Mendocino Open Paint Out, Mendocino, CA, https://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/events/mendocino-open-paint-out-stxhn, September
Gualala Plein Air Festival, Gualala, CA, https://gualalaarts.org/2024/09/gualala-arts-plein-air-open/, September
Plein Air Montana, Bozeman, MT, https://bozemanartmuseum.org/plein-air-montana-2024/, August
Plein Air Easton, Easton, MD, https://pleinaireaston.com/, July
ArtX Flagstaff, Flagstaff, AZ, https://artxideas.org/, May

Exhibitions

2023

Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac, AZ, “2024 Arizona Aqueous XXXVIII” Group Exhibition
Gallery B612, Seattle, WA, “Animal Art Show” Group Exhibition
Colorado Watercolor Society, Denver, CO, “CWS Member Show” Group Exhibition (Award: 1st Place)
Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI, “Falling Into Winter” Group Exhibition (Award: 1st Place)
Wright State University, Dayton, OH, “Drawing from Perception, Invention, Memory” Group Exhibition
Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA, “Natural Elements” Group Exhibition
Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI, “Follow the Light” Group Exhibition
Woodinville Arts Alliance, Woodinville, WA, “Molbaks Sip n Stroll” Group Exhibition
Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO, “November Group Show” Group Exhibition
Fayetteville State University Rosenthal Gallery and Ellington-White Contemporary, Fayetteville, NC, “2023 National Drawing Competition” Group Exhibition
Fontbonne University, St Louis, MO, “Figurative Works” Group Exhibition
Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA, “Properties of Water” Group Exhibition
Art League Rhode Island, Pawtucket, RI, “Art in Motion: Exploring Movement in Art” Group Exhibition
Life in the West Art Gallery, Broomfield, CO, “Lands and Lifestyles: Art of the West” Group Exhibition
East End Arts, Riverhead, NY, “Where is the Human?” Group Exhibition
Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI, “Complementary Colors” Group Exhibition
Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA, “Interstate: Where I-90 meets I-82” Group Exhibition
MVA Gallery, Bethlehem, PA, “The Drama of Light and Shadow” Group Exhibition
Mark Arts Center, Wichita, KS, “National Watercolor Exhibition” Group Exhibition
Five Points Arts, Torrington, CT, “Five Points Small Works” Group Exhibition
SHAPE Gallery, Shippensburg, PA, “Listening to Water” Group Exhibition
Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Brownsville, TX, “48th International Art Show” Group Exhibition (Award: Honorable Mention)
Athens Arts, Crawfordsville, IN, “Untitled 3, A Juried Exhibition” Group Exhibition
University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, “National Juried Painting Competition” Group Exhibition
San Fernando Valley Arts and Cultural Center, Encino, CA, “Human Form and Figure” Group Exhibition
Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO, “September Group Show” Group Exhibition
Colorado Watercolor Society, Denver, CO, “32nd Annual CWS State Watercolor Show” Group Exhibition
MVA Gallery, Bethlehem, PA, “The Grandeur of Color 2023” Group Exhibition
Lake Granbury Art Association, Granbury, TX, “The Fall Art Show 2023” Group Exhibition
Josephy Center for Arts and Culture, Joseph, OR, “41st Annual Wallowa Valley Festival of the Arts” Group Exhibition (Award: 1st Place, Watermedia)
The Center for Contemporary Arts, Abilene, TX, “7th Annual National Juried Art Competition” Group Exhibition
San Diego Watercolor Society, San Diego, CA, “Plein Air” Group Exhibition (Award: 1st Place)
AuSable Artisan Village, Grayling, MI, “Great Northern Art Explosion” Group Exhibition
Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI, “Dramatic Skies” Group Exhibition
Sage Community Arts, Sheridan, WY, “13th Annual National Juried Show” Group Exhibition
Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CA, “All About Women 2023” Group Exhibition
Gallery B612, Seattle, WA, “Summer In Seattle” Group Exhibition
Cincinnati Art Club, Cincinnati, OH, “Viewpoint 55” Group Exhibition
Northwind Art, Port Townsend, WA, “Weather or Not, Plein Air Show” Group Exhibition (Award: 1st Place Juror’s Prize)
Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI, “Amazing Space” Group Exhibition (Award: 1st Place)
The Firefly Artists, Northport, NY, “Works on Paper” Group Exhibition
Northwest Watercolor Society, Seattle, WA, “83rd International Open” Group Exhibition
Indiana University Kokomo, Kokomo IN, “Time Constraint” Group Exhibition
Gallery 510, Decatur, IL, “October National” Group Exhibition
Northstar Watermedia Society, Hudson, WI, “National Watermedia Juried Competition” Group Exhibition (Award: Peter Hopper Award for Excellence)
Southwestern Watercolor Society, Dallas, TX, “60th annual Membership Exhibition” Group Exhibition (Award: Special Recognition)
MVA Gallery, Bethlehem, PA, “Landscape Serene and Savage” Group Exhibition
Gage Academy of Art, Seattle, WA, “The Best of Gage” Group Exhibition (Award: 1st Place, Landscape)