KATHRYN LEE SMITH
CONTEMPORARY WHITE LINE PRINTS AND DRAWINGS
On Exhibit: October 1 - October 13
Opening Reception: Friday, October 4, 4 - 6 pm
This exhibition is a survey of Smith’s white line prints over many decades and includes both representational and abstract imagery: florals, Provincetown images and abstracted constructs. Also included in this show are her lyrical sumi pen and ink nudes.
Please visit my website: www.kathrynleesmithwhitelineprints.com
And follow me on instagram: KLSprovincetownprints
If you’d like to contact me directly, please email me at ksmithart@verizon.net
KATHRYN LEE SMITH - Artist Biography
Contemporary white line master printmaker Kathryn Lee Smith has been making art for
her entire lifetime. She learned the white line printmaking method of single block color woodblock printmaking, developed in Provincetown in 1915, from her grandmother, the
artist Ferol Sibley Warthen, at the age of four. After a formal education in the arts, BA
from University of Maryland, further studies at Maryland Institute of Art, University of
Colorado in Boulder, Colorado State University and graduate studies at University of
Northern Colorado in Greeley, Smith returned to her roots in Provincetown and studied
further with her grandmother as a young adult. After five years of commuting to
Provincetown she decided to move here year-round and devote her career to the
process of white line prints, both developing her own work, exhibiting, teaching and lecturing on the process in many venues, including museums and galleries both at home and abroad. In 2003 Smith was selected to bring our American (and Provincetownian) woodcut process to Japan. She has received the lifetime award from Who’s who and has been included in their biographical publications since 2006 (Who’s who in American Education, America, Women and the World). Her work is represented in permanent private and museum collections in the US and internationally.
KATHRYN LEE SMITH – Artist Statement
My work draws heavily on the sense of a particular moment in time, whether that
moment is conveyed as a representational image or an abstraction. The formal
elements of the visual language give me the tools to transform the idea; the process of manipulating these elements to support the theme bring the idea into focus.
Forty five years of technical experience inform the execution of the process. And, over
time, the marks made have repeated themselves, forming their own iconology,
becoming their own unique signature.
The inherent warmth of the wood, the use of hand tools, the physicality of pulling the
print, all are a significant part of the process which plays a part in informing the final print.
Copyright Kathryn Lee Smith