Carnell Smith
Carnell Smith
(1950−2015)
Indian River
Oil on canvas, 2010
H: 23 ¼” W: 20 ¼”
Acquired from the artist in 2010
Carnell Smith attended Lincoln Park Academy in Fort Pierce, where he first learned about art from his teacher, Zanobia Jefferson. When he was a teenager, Smith moved in with his sister, Doretha, and her husband, Alfred Hair. Smith soon began making frames for his brother-in-law. Hair taught Carnell and Doretha how to paint skies and waters by laying down swaths of color. Besides assisting him in the studio, Smith also worked as a salesman for Hair. Smith started creating his own works in 1967. He considered his paintings to be in the Alfred Hair landscape style. Later in life, Dr. Smith lived in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and served as a minister across the river in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
