Dwight Smith

Koi Island, Original Painting

2022

Artist Comments
Challenging conventional still-life pieces, artist Dwight Smith paints a contemporary koi pond with metal screws in the center. "Industrial or organic, animate or inanimate, all life is carbon-based," says Dwight. He paints the subjects in a realist tradition, circling an island represented by nuts and bolts. Applied in tender painterly strokes, the piece brims with vitality and motion.

About the Artist
Dwight Smith depicts commonplace objects with a sense of playfulness and humor. His watercolor still life paintings appear conventional in their soft colors and composed compositions, but upon further observation the juxtaposition of unrelated items make for delightfully surprising combinations and comparisons. This transformation of the everyday, and strong graphic style, lend the work a pop feel. However, pop art is generally cool and ironic. Instead, there is a familiar and comforting sense of kitsch and Americana in Dwight’s subjects. In a similar fashion to the work of American artist Wayne Thiebaud, Dwight paints food and sweets of the American appetite. Doughnuts, hotdogs, and lollipops are captured in all of their potent delight. He plays with scale and composition to bring out a sense of the absurd, but ultimately his goal is to make the viewer smile.

Words that describe this painting: watercolor, realism, still life, fish, koi, pop art, industrial, small, paper, water, swim, animal, ripples, animals, still life, realism, watercolor painting, white

Koi Island
Dwight Smith
Watercolor painting on paper
Ready to frame
One-of-a-kind
Signed on front
2022
12 in. h x 12 in. w
0 lbs. 2 oz.