LAWRENCE C. GOLDSMITH

Born: New York City, NY 1916

Lawrence Goldsmith, an accomplished artist with a long history of study and showings, has worked with oils and acrylics but is famous for his semi-abstract watercolors. Goldsmith graduated from Yale in 1939 and then studied art at Yale University. He continued his education at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, the School of the Museum of Modern Art, and studied with the Art Students League under artists such as Mario Cooper, as well as Philip Evergood and Will Barnet. he also spent considerable time working with Reuben Tam, who served as his inspiration; the first time he walked into Tan's studio on Monhegan Island and saw his artwork, Goldsmith decided he wanted to paint similarly. Goldsmith eventually became a full member of the American Watercolor Society, and received the Windsor and Newton Award for an acrylic painting called "White Waters." He wrote the book Watercolor Bold and Free, which has sold 75,000 copies since its first publication in 1980 and is currently being re-released in paperback. He also worked as a lecturer at Queens College of the University of the City of New York, and gave painting workshops in Maine, Vermont, Delaware, and elsewhere, but has since decided to focus instead on expanding his artistic style and method. Goldsmith has had his works displayed in the Yale Art Gallery, the Ogunquit Art Center, at Bates College, and at Loma Linda University in California, and other museums and galleries.

Goldsmith draws much of his inspiration from the landscape surrounding his home in Fairfax, Vermont, and his cottage and studio on Monhegan Island, Maine, where he summered for more than 30 years with his wife, Lynda. After many years of painting and of becoming familiar with these two spots, he can paint landscape scenes from these areas without even looking out the window. In fact, he prefers to draw from images in his mind, and very rarely even sketches his painting in advance, feeling that such a practice limits the painting's capacity to grow and change. his painting methods include dropping paint from above and then tilting the paper to allow it to bleed, spattering paint onto the paper, using a pigment knife or table knife to apply thin lines of paint or scratch into paint that has already been applied and off color with a twisted up tissue to leave a brilliant but slightly tinted white. He uses white as part of his design, feeling that the color adds a hint of daytime, like a bit of snow on the trees in March--and adds, "I care more about design than about the subject matter." Indeed he creates his paintings as abstract images which are meant to show the emotion of a place rather than a pictorial depiction of it. Goldsmith paintings are based on the emotional instead of the tangible, and depend on the emotions not only of Goldsmith himself, but also of the viewer. He wishes viewers to be able to interpret his art freely, by suggesting places or times or seasons instead of painting the images faithfully. He considers there to be three elements to the creation of a good watercolor: technical ability, imagination, and receptiveness to new ideas. It is this exploration of technique and style that motivates him now, for he remarks, "If you don't take risks, you're never going to get anywhere."

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WORKS CITED:

Bold and Free: the Watercolor Techniques of Lawrence C. Goldsmith (video)

Vaniotis, Amy. Personal Interview (telelphone) 2001.

"Three Steps to Heaven." International Artist Magazine. June 1999.

"Artworks by Lawrence C Goldsmith" (website)

Researched and Written by Amy E. Vaniotis

Images: Peter J. Boehmer