Home Valley Advocate On Exhibit: Joe Smith’s Scratchboard Trees

On Exhibit: Joe Smith’s Scratchboard Trees

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VA47-pickART-2016

Nature, From Scratch

Joe Smith has a common name but a not-too-common job: forester, slash artist. By day, he’s working out in the woods, putting in hours of hard labor off the beaten track. But wherever he goes, he carries his sketchbook with him. “I find a sense of beauty and wonder in the natural landscape that I try to capture in my art,” Smith says in his artist statement. “The pieces I have selected are largely from across the New England landscape, but also include some favorite scenes from other places I have visited.” Scratchboard — a two-dimensional, subtractive medium in which abrasive tools remove a surface layer to expose a contrasting layer underneath — allows Smith to bring out both strange and familiar textures in these natural scenes.

Scratchboard trees and landscapes by Joe Smith. Through Dec. 30. Free. Amherst Town Hall, 4 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. (978) 249-2306, [email protected].

— Hunter Styles