Stephen Smith is the Photography & Digital Artist Spotlight winning artist for the month of November 2019. He is an award-winning photographer based in Pennsylvania, USA.

Stephen’s Solo Art Exhibition will be featured on the website for the month of November 2019. The gallery will promote Stephen and his work on the Fusion Art website, individual online press releases to hundreds of outlets, email blasts to over 3,500+ buyers, collectors, galleries and art professionals, in online event calendars, art news websites and through the gallery’s extensive social media outlets.  Fusion Art’s objective is to promote the Artist Spotlight winning artists, worldwide, to art professionals, gallerists, collectors and buyers.

Please read Stephen’s Artist Statement below as he describes his history, inspiration and process in his own words. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see his exhibition.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these award-winning pieces, or to see more of Stephen’s work, please visit his website.

Also, please visit Fusion Art’s YouTube Channel to see Stephen’s Solo Art Exhibition Video.

Thank you to all the artists who participated in the Artist Spotlight competition and congratulations to Stephen and the other Artist Spotlight winning artists.

Artist Statement

My freelance photography covers a wide range of topics including landscapes, seascapes, adventure/sports, nature, flowers, birds, and historic sites. I have had a special interest in photography for over 45 years, utilizing it in my dental practice for patient documentation, education, public forums, and scientific publications. A central theme of my current work is use of macrophotography, inspired by Nature.

My 2-volume textbook on ‘Creative Digital Photography: The Evolution From 35 MM Film to High Definition Imaging and Beyond’ was published in 2017. I have developed a fine arts photography collection, which spans multiple genres of imaging. Since retiring from practice, I have continued my imaging work with teaching, participating in gallery exhibitions and photography fairs. I have been transforming a number of photographs into watercolor and oil digital paintings.

The themes of Waterscapes and Nature with birds and flowers reflects my current work, with the imaging of prints and canvas wraps in various sizes. I have been offering “Triptychs”, a series of three images combined as a trio wall collage or as large single prints of 3 images of the same genre/subject that match, including wide panoramics.

In my latest works, I have been concentrating on abstract close-up images, using colorful acrylic dyes and inks with bubbles and swirl patterns. I mostly use my DSLR 50 mm prime lens with the coupling of macro extension tubes. This narrows down the depth of field to several mm, so a high-speed setting and/or tripod can be helpful.

I will create fluid patterns on a glass plate that is elevated above a colorful cloth patterned backdrop, with twin LED focusing lights. Using water droplets of various macro/micro sizes, the colorful images can be reflected into the water “domes”. Changing the angle of focus points will make fascinating images; flowers reflected directly into the camera will come out upside down, (refraction), whereas an image projected onto a mirror or DVD surface (see dragonfly) will appear directly on the screen/monitor.

Mixing water and oil can disperse dyes in many swirl patterns. Some of them are unpredictable, as in the abstract patterns created when adding liquid soap (Dawn) to high-fat milk and multicolored water-based dyes. The results from the ensuing explosive patterns have to be photographed quickly as the changes occur.

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