"Lavender and Wheat, Provence," an oil on canvas, is among works by Sally Hughes Smith in an exhibit opening today at Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects, 1500 Union Ave.
On Tuesday morning, Sally Hughes Smith left her home in Charleston, S.C., in a Grand Caravan loaded with 50 framed canvases destined for Askew Nixon Ferguson architectural firm in Midtown Memphis.
"Perpetual Light," which is Smith's fifth one-woman show at Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects, opens today and runs through Dec. 2.
"Lavender and Wheat, Provence," an oil on canvas, is among works by Sally Hughes Smith in an exhibit opening today at Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects, 1500 Union Ave.
"I looked like I was going to deliver laundry, with the seats down and the car all wham-jammed with paintings," joked Smith, a Memphis-born painter who has resided in Charleston for the last 30 years.
The paintings, all landscapes, run the gamut from gleaming Carolina Low Country scenes to vibrant depictions of rural France, Italy and Jackson Hole, Wyo.
"This is the way I paint: I like to be outside, and I like to be immersed in the place," Smith said. "I don't get that from working from a photograph, or from being inside. I like to get out in it and feel the magic. I'm very energized by the power of nature, which is constantly renewing itself and connecting me to the land."
The luminous "Lavender and Wheat, Provence," begun on a bicycling trip in France, epitomizes that energy and renewal. Brilliant gold and purple swaths cut across the canvas in an Impressionist style, anchored by neat renderings of wheat in the foreground and trees and mountain peaks behind. The entire effect is reminiscent of the Fauvist landscapes painted by French painter Andre Derain.
Color-wise, paintings like "Live Oak, Spring Island" and "Mountain Mist" echo the opinion of Post-Impressionist Paul Gaugin, who in 1888 famously stated, "How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine."
"I have a subjective use of color," said Smith. "I do not slavishly copy the colors I see before me; I'm celebrating what I look at. To me, there's a richness in the color and a depth in the palette that has more emotion to it. I'm like a composer, in that I'm manipulating the scene, taking you into my world using light, texture, and thick and thin strokes."
Although Smith, who was raised in the Chickasaw Gardens neighborhood, left Memphis in the 1960s to attend Duke University, she has maintained her Tennessee roots. Her brother, Dr. Allen Hughes, is a plastic surgeon here; he also carves ducks and paints watercolors. One sister, Jane Coble, is a painter in Nashville; another sister, Anne Hughes Sayle, lives and paints in Walls, Miss.
"Perpetual Light," Smith said, is dedicated to her mother, Jane Barker Hughes, a Trezevant Manor resident who died at 97 last month. Earlier this year, Smith published "The Circle," a journal about Hughes' battle with Alzheimer's disease.
"The last time I was in Memphis was for my mother's funeral," she said. "Guess what I did just before that? I had to come to town for a meeting, and I got in bed with my mother and read her my father's love letters from the Second World War. My trips home have been very emotional lately."
"I've had 33 one-woman shows, and the ones (in Memphis) are always very, very special," said Smith, 62. "I get a very warm welcoming feeling when I come home. It's also a lot of fun to say, 'Hey, I was that little skinny-legged girl who left here and this is what I've done with my life.'"
Preview
Sally Hughes Smith's "Perpetual Light"
At Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects, 1500 Union Ave. Opens today 5:30-8 p.m. Runs through Dec. 2.
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