Interview
Sandra E. Smith-Poling
Port Townsend Wooden Festival 2005. Sandra has paintings in galleries and private collections worldwide, and now has a studio in Port Townsend, a Victorian Seaport known for its artists, musicians and wooden boat builders. She has had many paintings in juried shows and is the 2004 Wooden Boat Festival Poster award winner for her 1933 painting of the ARTHUR FOSS towing the WAWONA.
She is heavily influenced by her father, the renowned Southern California artist, Craig Smith, as well as Arthur Beaumont, the navy artist, Sir William Russell Flint and John Singer Sargeant. Upon graduating from medical school, her father asked her if she was ready to take up some serious art studying after having fun all those years in school. He told her the only permanent things in the universe were the arts. While balancing a medical practice, she took his advice and pursued her interest in painting. Historic wooden ships along with the "Tall Ships", are favorite subjects.