Mingles of Hilton Head

R. Bolton Smith is an American impressionist painter who was born in the Midwest US in 1944. As a young man, Smith spent winters in Florida which seemed like another world to him and triggered an enthusiasm for varied subjects and exciting coloring that is reflected in his work today.

Smith taught on the college level for several years, after which painting became his full-time occupation. Bolton and his wife Joyce for the past 35 years, have traveled the United States and abroad, capturing some of the world's most stunning landscapes.

Five of Smith's paintings were chosen to tour France for a 1976 bicentennial show by the French Ministry of Culture. The paintings toured France for a year. Robert Virnat, a French art critic, stated, "Smith will place himself with the descendants of impressionist. His paintings of spontaneous landscapes are of extraordinary pale luminosity and yet vibrant in my judgment, this is an artist of great quality." Smith oils have been extensively exhibited in many galleries across the US and France and may be viewed in many corporate collections and projects nationwide, such as Binney & Smith Corporation, makers of Crayola and Liquitex™, International Homes Corporation, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Holiday Inn Systems and the C. G. Rein Galleries.

Smith is best known for his landscapes of the American Southwest, Central Plains, Southeast, and of Europe. His soft-focused gentle brush work technique lends itself to a more classic subject. It is with seeming ease that Smith diffuses a distant variety of colored shadows interspersed with glowing light, to gently persuade his focal point to become more real.

Now an impressionist painter of International and National landmarks and landscapes, Smith owns the Harbour Art Gallery on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. While the growing popularity of his works and the couple's personal management of the gallery limit travel to a few months a year, Smith adds, "travel is a great form of my education and the world's beauty is my greatest inspiration."

Sizes
Large: 19 1/2" x 29 1/2"
Small: 7" x 10"