A Look to the Past and Present
Raised in rural southwestern Colorado, artist Jed Webster Smith has always found himself surrounded by the myths, legends and realities of the American West. His understanding of fact and fiction comes from a range of sources including television programs and real-life explorations of places like remote, once mining towns found in his home state.
Jed Webster Smith, Desert Solace, watercolor on paper mounted to canvas,18 x 18.
“I find the myth of the West to be something that I am both familiar with and can continue to explore. The distinction between true and false narratives is equally engaging,” says Smith. “I also believe it can be used to comment on issues we face today with the environment, identity and politics. I continue to find inspiration from the outdoors as well as through reading primary documents and historical nonfiction of the American West.”
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- Jed Webster Smith, Remembering Who We Were Among the Quakies, watercolor on paper mounted to canvas, 36 x 26.
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- Jed Webster Smith, Last Light on the San Juans, acrylic on paper mounted to canvas and coated with transparent matte gel, 14 x 22.
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- Jed Webster Smith, Hard Money, watercolor on paper mounted to canvas, 40 x 40.
Smith, who received a BFA in 2015 from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and a MFA in 2021 from the New York Academy of Art, primarily works in watercolor. He finds that the medium always has new challenges and enjoys navigating techniques that work best with the material. For his large-scale compositions, Smith’s process can include thumbnail sketches, reference photos and props, and color roughs to determine relationship and saturation before putting brush to canvas.
“My use of dry brush and the scale in which I work is of special importance. I also mount the finished watercolor to canvas and stretch it on stretcher bars,” he shares. “I want the watercolor to have a presence when hanging in a room and to be unobstructed by a barrier of glass.”
Jed Webster Smith, Shellacked Cowboy XX, shellac ink on vintage paper mounted to panel, 16 x 12.
In addition to watercolor paintings, Smith works in reductive drawing and collage. His ongoing collage series SHELLACKED COWBOYS combines vintage paper with two color combinations of shellack ink. He says, “I’ve imposed a unique set of self-devised rules to structure my collage process. I work strictly from imagination, rely on strong lines in the composition and allow chance happenings to occur in the shellac ink used on the surface of the paper.” These intentional limitations, he notes, balance out the in-depth steps he takes when painting with watercolors.
Smith will have work in several exhibitions as 2024 comes to a close, and he is preparing for a solo show at Denmark’s Gallery Poulsen in 2025. —Rochelle Belsito
contact information
jedwsmith.com
representation
Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, Denmark, gallerypoulsen.com
upcoming shows
Black Friday Exhibition, November 29, Maxwell Alexander Gallery.
2024 Winter Exhibition, Visions West Contemporary.
2025 solo exhibition, Gallery Poulsen.
This story appeared in the December 2024/January 2025 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.