One of the oldest forms of art is architecture. Artistic design of living, working, and ceremonial spaces enhances all of our life’s activities. The Morgan Arts Council presents “Art in Architecture”, an exhibit to explore how architecture is depicted in art and how artistic design of architectural elements can enhance a living or working space. The exhibit will be in the Special Events Gallery at the Ice House in Berkeley Springs, WV.

The exhibit will feature a wide range of work from painting and photography to fine wood and metal work, stained glass, and jewelry.

I will be exhibiting several prints from my “Cityscapes” series and the “Interwoven Mills” series. I am also the curator for the exhibit.

The exhibit will feature a total of 16 artists. Here is the full list:

Rip Smith (Photography)
Alice Webb (Digital photo art)
Judy Rand (Cabinetry)
Becca Jones (Wood sculpture)
Lee Badger (Metal sculpture)
John Fisher (Torii jewelry)
Jerry Smith (Stick furniture)
South Mountain Creations (Carved sink)
Peter Wood (Metal sculpture)
Steve Adams (Wood bench)
Mary-Jo Bennett Photography)
Ralph Gonzalez (Stained Glass)
Doug Ritenburg (Photography)
Kat Cimaglio (Acrylic painting)
Wilson Webb (Painting)

There will be an opening reception Friday, April 4 from 7:30-9:00pm at the Ice House Gallery.

Directions here.

Hope to see you there!

I am am very pleased and excited to announce the opening of my solo exhibit in Washington, DC at the The Stanford in Washington Gallery. The exhibit consists of 33 black and white images that trace my evolution as a photographer over a 45 year period from 1962 through 2007.

The exhibit is presented in three segments. The first group features selected images from my “Foundations” portfolio, which covers my earliest work from about 1962 through 1992.

I am also introducing a limited edition portfolio of prints from this group. The portfolio consists of fifteen fine prints on Hahnemuhle bamboo fibre paper. The prints are individually numbered and signed and are housed in an archival print folio.

Copies of the portfolio are available at the Stanford in Washington Gallery or by email request to rsmith (at) sterlingimages (dot) com.

The second group is from the “Transitions” portfolio, which covers the period of transition from film to digital capture and my development in the area of digital imaging 2003 to 2007.

The third and final grouping highlights selections of recent work from my “Cityscapes” portfolio.

Here is one of the “Cityscapes” images from the exhibit:

All of the prints were made with an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 printer with Epson Ultrachrome “K3″ archival pigment inks on Crane Museo Silver Rag paper.

There will be a reception on Sunday, March 9 from 1pm to 4pm at the Gallery located at 2655 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC. The gallery is located directly across Connecticut Avenue from the Woodley Park/National Zoo stop on the Metro Red Line. For my friends in West Virginia, the easiest way to get there would be to go to the Shady Grove Metro station in Gaithersburg and ride the train down to Woodley Park.

The Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, Saturday 11am-6pm. The exhibit will be on display through mid-April.

Stanford in Washington has sent out this press release: siw-press-release.pdf

Here is a view of the gallery:

The Stanford in Washington (SIW) Program, part of the Stanford University Public Policy Program, offers qualified undergraduate students an opportunity to study and learn in a rigorous program in the nation’s capital.

More good news!

I received the news yesterday that I have two images selected for the Cumberland Valley Photographic Salon at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts.

My image, “Majestic Old 734″ was awarded First Prize in the black and white ‘Still Life” category.

I am very pleased for the recognition of this image that I consider one of my 2 or 3 best of 2006.

The second image juried for exhibit was “Curved Corridor”, which has also been exhibited at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado. (UPDATE - 1/30/08 - I learned two days ago by way of the Main ARTery newsletter that “Curved Corridor”was awarded second prize in the Architecture/Landscape category.)

The reception for the show will be at the museum in Hagerstown on Sunday, February 10 from 2:30-4:00 PM. Drop by and say ‘hello’ if you can. Here are directions if you need them: https://www.wcmfa.org/directions.htm

The January, 2008 issue of Rangerfinder Magazine highlights “The Power of Black and White”.

One of my images is included in the article, ‘Reflections on an Exhibition‘ by Alice B. Miller about the 2007 Center for Fine Art Photography Black and White exhibit. Ms Miller was the juror for that exhibition and chose two of my images for the show. In the article, she highlights several images from that exhibit, including my ‘Going Up’ image from my ‘Foundations‘ portfolio.

It’s a new year, and we’re starting out well.

Tomorrow I will be delivering three prints to Tamarack, the West Virginia center for Artists and Artisans near Beckley, WV.

The prints will be exhibited in ‘Modern Interpretations’, a juried art exhibition in the David L. Dickirson Gallery at Tamarack.

Here are the three images, which are part of my ‘Cityscapes’ series taken in Boston in March, 2007.

I was visiting my friend Allen Doyle in Braintree, MA (suburb south of Boston) last March and we took the commuter boat into Boston just to walk around town and see what we could see. Neither one of us had been there in a long time. I took some casual shots around the downtown area. When I got back to the house and looked at them on my laptop computer, I thought that there would be some potential if I went at it a bit more seriously. We made plans to go back into Boston and the result was an interesting series of architectural studies.

I’ve been surfing the net a lot looking at the photography resources and organizations around the country. There are a lot of exciting organizations, events, and activities.

There are workshops, portfolio reviews, galleries, schools, and more in places like Boston, Santa Fe, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Houston, Charlotte, NC, Woodstock, NY, to name just a few.

Living in Martinsburg, West Virginia, I have been looking for something in the Washington DC area.

Thus far I have not found anything. One would think that Washington, DC would have some resources for photography.

Perhaps DC is too caught up in politics(?)

If anyone reads this that knows of something that I am missing, please drop me an email.

As a photographer, 2007 was a breakthrough year for me. I a number of ways, what I have been doing was validated in 2007.

Since I am a late bloomer when it comes to blogging, I thought I would recap some of the significant things from 2007. The idea is less to brag, but to put what comes next into some context.

2006 was the first year that I had any kind of regular print sales after being juried into the Ice House Artist Co-op in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

In 2007 I expanded my footprint in the Eastern Panhandle to four galleries by the end of August and this helped generate additional sales and the income to support participation in a George DeWolfe Workshop in Adirondack State Park in New York, the ACP Portfolio Reviews in Atlanta, and the acquisition of some significant new equipment. Overall I probably spent more than I made, but I rationalized that these things were an investment in the future.

In August I also began the transition from full-time employment to ultimate retirement and status as a full-time fine art photographer. Now working three days a week I have a four-day weekend almost every week and that gives me more time and energy for photography.

Overall I could not be more pleased with my progress and I am grateful for the support from my partner, Malinda and from other friends.

On this Christmas Eve, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and I’m looking forward to 2008.

I’m back to where I was a few months ago testing different papers to see which will give me the best results with the new printer.

The results with the Advanced Black and White driver are really stunning with Museo Silver Rag and Epson Velvet Fine Art papers.

Hanemuhle Photo Rag works much better with the 3800 than with the 1800. I never bothered to get a custom profile for the 1800 and Photo Rag and it yielded an excessively warm-tone print. With the 3800 ABW driver Photo. Rag comes out neutral with very good blacks.

However, I keep coming back to Museo Silver Rag for the black and white exhibit prints. It is even better with the 3800 ABW driver than it was on the 1800 with a custom profile, and that is saying something.

I think I will have to bite the bullet and spend the money on this paper.

The jury is still out for color. Photo Rag has yielded some nice prints but I also like Epson Velvet Fine Art and Museo Portfolio Rag. I’m still testing.

I’ve had my new Epson Stylus Pro 3800 for about ten days and I am well impressed so far.

I especially like the Advanced Black and White driver, which performs as advertised delivering very neutral black and white prints.

Besides that I am impressed by the printer’s consistency in color across different papers.

I just set this thing up and I wanted to see how it worked posting from my Blackberry. I don’t have much time to blog when I am home but I sometimes have time when I am waiting for things during the day,

BCNU …