Brandon Smith

A native Californian painter he was trained at the Academy of Art College San Francisco. In 2002 he received a BFA in Fine Art/Oil Painting from the academy. His painting style is social realism combined with contemporary brush strokes.
Born in 1974, and raised in San Luis Obispo. At eighteen, Brandon spent a year in Quito, Ecuador as a foreign exchange student. This opportunity allowed him to observe another culture. Brandon returned to The United States to study Spanish and Environmental Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara. In his free time he began exploring with oil painting. A landscape painting class at Santa Barbara City College was his first formal instruction. After which, painting had become a passion.
Brandon moved from Santa Barbara to Oakland in 1998, to study at the Academey, and fell in love with the diversity that the Bay Area has to offer. The urban environment and the culturally rich population inspired Brandon's paintings and became the subject matter for much of his work.
Brandon received awards two years in a row at the Academy of Art's annual Spring show, 2002 & 2003. As well as first prize Bench at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show 2001. During this time he was an assistant to the sculptor/painter Cederic Wentworth, and studied under Craig Nelson, Brian Blood, Kevin Moore, Zhaoming Wu, and Huihan Liu.
His paintings are also represented at The Waterhouse Gallery in Santa Barbara, have sold in various group shows and fundraisers, and was featured at Via Centro restaurant in Berkeley
Currently Brandon is working on several commissions and teaching private lessons, while preparing his next body of work.

"Women on BART" oil on masonite, 5.5"x 4", $400	"San Leandro Street Study" oil on masonite, 5.5"x 4", $400
"Women with a Pint" oil on masonite, 4"x5.5"", $350	"Customer in Orange" oil on masonite, 4""x 5.5", $400