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Allen C. Smith (Denny Smith) is a painter and artist living in Elmira, New York. Denny Smith, Allen C. Smith, Allen Smith, Allan Smith, Alan Smith, artist, Elmira, New York, abstract, colorful. For me, making art is a visceral experience. Sometimes it is about formality. Sometimes it is about meditation. Sometimes it's just an avenue. My abstractions are borne of thoughts that come to me throughout the day, usually at first awakening. Often the thought is simply a line or a negative space that I choose to follow with my hand. Art heroes are Jackson Pollock, Bob Dylan, Franz Kline, Hans Hartung, Kelly (Ellsworth and Walt), and Kandinsky. I have not consciously attempted to emulate these artists. They are simply my comfort. They moved me emotionally when I was most impressionable and have stayed with me. Although I graduated from art school in the mid-’70s, I consider myself an emerging artist. I’m decisively following my passion after a career of subservience.

Music influences my work. While painting, I listen to French jazz, American jazz, Texas Swing, Rock, Blues, and if all else fails, I tune in to Performance Today on NPR. Favorites are Chick Webb, Django Reinhardt, Edith Piaf, Don Byron, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Casa Loma Orchestra, Lyle Lovett, Hot Club of Cow Town, Diana Krall, the list goes on.

My newest series of paintings respond to Ukraine's invasion. The images portray the destructive effects of war. They let me vent and protest Russian aggression.

Reductive art, abstract art, abstract paintings, modern painting, modern art gallery, contemporary painting, contemporary art, wall art, nonobjective, non-representational, fine art prints, abstraction defined, abstractism, modernism, expressionist, canvas, action painting, New York artist, oil on canvas, watercolor on paper, Spencer Hill Gallery, Corning, NY, Kathrine Page, Echo Art Fair Buffalo NY, Delaware Contemporary, Arnot Art Museum, Ukraine, War in Ukraine, Kiev, Kherson, Zelensky, Donetsk, intense fighting

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