WASHINGTON, DC.- This fall at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Clarice Smith’s 30 years of creating a significant body of accomplished, admired work go on display as Elements of Nature: Equines and Still Lifes by Clarice Smith, from October 9, 2009, through January 10, 2010.

“Elements of Nature highlights the artist’s talent for harmonizing the polarities of the natural world. Imbued with an intimate sense of ‘having been there,’ Smith’s work invites the viewer to share her private moment of inspiration. We are pleased to host her work her work here at NMWA,” says Museum Director Susan Fisher Sterling.

Inspired by the world around her—opulent flowers in her garden, horses at her farm in Virginia—she creates brilliant scenes infused with delightful mood and ambience. Her equestrian paintings showcase the grace of the equine form, capturing the animal’s potential for explosive action and quiet repose. Exhilarating scenes of galloping horses complement more contemplative, portrait-like images, testifying to Smith’s warm affection for the animals.

Smith aspires to the tradition of floral still-life painting epitomized by the 17th-century Flemish and Dutch masters, and often quotes Renaissance and Baroque traditions by framing works in connected panels to create diptychs or triptychs. Foregoing the use of preparatory drawings, she prefers to arrange shapes and colors directly on canvas, evoking uncultivated nature.

A DC native, Smith attended the Corcoran College of Art and Design and the University of Maryland. She received an MFA from George Washington University where she later served on the faculty. She has had numerous exhibitions and her paintings are in international private and public collections.