James Smythe

I am a university-trained artist with a MFA degree and post-graduate study in New York City. I am now a retired art professor and full time artist. I am currently celebrating 50 years of living in the Smoky Mountains of NC.
Teaching Career: University Teaching – Western Carolina University, 1966-1998, Cullowhee, NC
I began college teaching in a rural mountain region that was completely different from any I had lived in before. During my 31 years I taught painting, drawing, sculpture and contemporary art history and was promoted to full professor.

East Carolina University, BS in Art Education and Painting 1963, Greenville, NC;
I double majored in painting and art education. In my senior year I was accepted into my first juried art competition, the NC Artists’ Annual at the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh.
Virginia Commonwealth University, MFA in Painting and Sculpture 1967, Richmond, VA;
I won my first art award, Richmond in Paintings & Drawings, Valentine Museum (1966)
Teachers’ College, Columbia University, post-graduate study in Higher Education 1971-2, NYC.
A leave of absence to live and study on the post-graduate level in New York City lead to a complete change of my direction as a creative artist. Influenced by the paintings of the old masters in the great art museums and the New Realists artists, I decided to return to the easel and figure painting.

My art works have been accepted in over 90 competitive and invitational exhibitions, with more than 15 awards. A sample of these exhibitions include: Knickerbocker Artists, National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic, Watercolor Southeast, The Salmagundi Club Non-members Exhibition, Bascom Art Center Invitational & Waters of WNC exhibitions, and the NC Museum of Art two Award Winners Exhibition.
I am currently a member of the Appalachian Pastel Society and the Southeastern Pastel Society and have participated in the juried international, national and member exhibitions of both groups winning an award with each. I am a Member of Excellence with the Southeastern Pastel Society (2017).