Sandra Smith-Dugan was born, raised and educated in California's San Francisco Bay Area. Her earliest exposure to art came from her mother,  a University of California at Berkeley fine arts graduate and painter. Growing up in an artistic and creative family, Sandra went on to obtain her Bachelors of Fine Art in painting and drawing from San Jose State University. She continued her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute, University of California at Santa Cruz, and professional workshops.

Sandra Smith-Dugan paints in oil on canvas and board with an emphasis on the landscape, urbanscape and figure. Painting en plein air or in the studio, her work is open and expressive and showcases her innate sense of color and composition. Smith-Dugan's style, which clearly has its own unique and evolutionary character, shows the influences of Bay Area Figurative painter Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Brown and Wayne Thiebaud, as well as that of American realist Edward Hopper.

As an artist, I use painting as a conduit for the full expression of what I see, feel, know and desire. I am a native Californian, raised in the Bay Area, so much of my work finds its roots in the rich context of the people and landscape of this region. Lucian Freud, and the Bay Area Figurative school painters, such as Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud and Elmer Bischoff have all been strong influences on my style and process.

Life has a way of inspiring me with a plentitude of subject matter. When painting the figure, I work with a direct and immediate approach that takes full advantage of the model's energy and physical language. This provides me with an appropriate means of interconnecting the objective and the subjective, and using sensual observation to present personal reflections on our shared humanity.

I look at landscapes and urbanscapes as living entities with a past and a future. When painting them, I try to convey my sense of their drama and energy and to visually imbue the scenes with a combined sense of history and presence. When approaching a new canvas, my first emphasis is on developing a strong composition. I then focus on the painting elements of color, light, value and texture. The finished painting is a reflection of the present, interwoven with the complexity of the past and the promise of the future.



 


Published in: American Art Collector: A Juried Competition of New Work, Vol.3, Book 1 - Western States, 2006

Los Gatos Weekly Review

Half Moon Bay Review

Triton Museums George Rivera Review


 


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