Graham W Smith

About Graham W Smith

Graham is a Master Pastellist, artist and tutor in watercolours, acrylics, pastels and oils and is a member of both the Royal Queensland Art Society and The Pastel Society of Australia.

Wynnum artist, Graham, should be well known to Australian Artist readers with his first major 8 page article appearing in 1999 and his work has been featured in the magazine every year since.

With an art career spanning 40 years creating over 2,150 paintings, Graham has won over 141 first prizes in all mediums including 55 major acquisitive awards and including the $5,000 Acquisitive Prize for Oils at the Ernest Henry Memorial Art Show at Cloncurry in September 2007.  In 2008 the artist won the $3,000 Open Art Award at Mt Isa with one of his watercolours.  In 2000 Government House, Paddington - QLD, commissioned 6 watercolours for their permanent collection to show future generations how the estate appeared at the start of the new millennium.

Graham has been commissioned by the Commonwealth Government and Queensland Government to supply paintings of various Australian scenes for their ofices and in 2004 St Andrew's Hospital commissioned 60 prints of 12 original watercolours plus commissioned a painting of their heritage listed building for their foyer and also purchased an additional painting.

The artist has works in Japanese, USA, NZ, UK and Hong Kong corporate offices with one major work in RMC's corporate box at AFL Headquarters in Melbourne which complements the 36 individual paintings of Brisbane landmarks which they commissioned.  The artist has also completed many paintings for calendars, artist impressions for interior decorators, building companies, boat builders and nursing homes.

In 2004 Graham became a Master Pastellist with The Pastel Society of Australia and in 2005 received a scholarship from The Pastel Society of America in New York and Arts Queensland provided a $3,300 travel grant to undertake this study tour of the USA.

In the March 2006 issue of The Australian Artist magazine, Graham was a finalist in the "Flowers and Gardens" competition with his pastel of a Brisbane scene, "Astor Terrace" and in the September 2006 issue there was a 7 page article on the artist's recent tutoring and painting trip around Australia.  In 2007 his oil "Frenchman's Beach" was a finalist in the "Seascapes" competition in the magazine.  The November 2007 (Issue No 281) had a 10 page tutorial entitled "Attack the Canvas" on oils, acrylics and watercolours.

In demand as a generous, enthusiastic, well organised and professional tutor, Graham has conducted many repeat workshops in all mediums in Queensland, NSW, SA, WA and Tasmania and in recent years has held over 100 classes in regional art galleries and art societies around Australia.  As a practising artist in oils, watercolours, acrylics, mixed media and pastels, Graham has been invited to judge a number of art shows in Queensland.

In 2008, after a series of auditions, Graham was selected as a demonstrating artist for a 30 minute regular art segment to be shown on QLD Community TV (formerly known as Briz 31) and was contracted for a series to go to air in 2008 and 2009.  In March 2009 Graham commenced a twice weekly radio segment for 2 minutes called "Art Tips" on Bay FM100.3 which would be the first time an Australian artist has featured on two major media outlets.