I have been an artist all my life. |
“I have been an artist all my life. I grew up a farm girl in southern Illinois, with three brothers and two sisters. Life was hard work for my parents, who were amazed when I told them,’I am going to be an artist.’
I was hired to illustrate a series of books for the U.S. bicentennial. That assignment changed my life.
I became an on-site painter, traveling from one historic site to another- Valley Forge, Mt. Rushmore, Jamestown, the Statue of Liberty. For the next forty years, I had a love affair with this country.
My body of work, called the American Legacy Collection, holds more than two hundred of my historic watercolor paintings and sketches. All of my hard work was recognized by The Lincoln Academy of Illinois, and I was awarded a lifetime appointment as Artist Laureate of Illinois.
Aside from creating that Collection, I was asked to paint a select number of Triple Crown racehorses for The Hall of Fame Sports Book. My first of many subjects was Secretariat. Then, when Earnest Hemingway’s centennial birthday approached, I was commissioned to do a series of paintings based on his novels, which took me from local Oak Park, IL to Key West, FL and on to Spain.
In addition to being named Artist Laureate, I received the George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge for preserving American history.
Now, well into my 90s, I still enjoy painting and look forward to finding a permanent home for my life’s work- the American Legacy Collection”
-Kay Smith