Lawrence Goldsmith: Watercolorist at Large

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Summary: overview of watercolotist's life and paintings
Review: Goldsmith has been painting his watercolors since he graduated from Yale in the 1930s after studying under the noted watercolorist Eliot O'Hara. His travels to the Caribbean, Central America, and Southeast Asia after graduation infused his characteristic paintings done mostly in Maine and Vermont with a use of color both deft and delicate and an almost calligraphic sense of line and organization. Carl Little's title "Passion of Place" for his Introduction refers especially to Goldsmith's use of color. As Little notes, Goldsmith's paintings are essentially evocative rather than representational even though scenes are recognizable in them. Drawn early in his career to Turner's watercolor sketches, Goldsmith himself allows this. Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth are other detectable, but indirect influences. All but a few of the 62 full-page, full-color plates were done after 1990, Goldsmith's mature period when his distinctive, absorbing style was fully developed.