Arts on the Go: Allen Smith
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) — Local artist Allen Crittenden Smith has been using the art studio on the third floor at the Hilliard Corporation in Elmira, as his domain for painting canvases. Smith who serves as a director of the Hilliard Corporation in Elmira, received his bachelor’s degree in art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1975 and has been painting in the art studio since 2004.
Mornings on the go: Jennifer Sekella
Every time he comes into the studio in the morning, he sits on a bench for 15 minutes to quiet out any distractions and listens to French jazz to help him paint. Smith says he lets the music and the paint tell him what to do while working on the canvases.
“I like jazz because I didn’t listen to it growing up. I listened to rock and roll and if I listen to rock and roll while I’m working, it kind of transfers my brain back to that era, and I don’t want to do that when I’m painting. I want my paintings to stay as abstract as the music,” said Smith.
Some of the paintings Smith does can take up to three to four months to complete, depending on what size canvas he uses and what his painting is about. He says he doesn’t believe in mistakes, and how it’s about playing with colors to draw out the lines.
When asked about how he knows if a canvas doesn’t need any more work he said, “I’ve got to get out of the room overnight or the next day and then come back and look at the painting. If I can’t see anything that I want to improve, and if it works for me personally, then I’m satisfied.”
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