Roberta Jean Smith

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, I have lived all my adult life in Los Angeles, primarily Venice and Santa Monica, where I have my art studio.

As a young artist, I frequented the Art Museum and took classes at the Cleveland Institute of Art. CMA had beautiful Cezannes depicting Mt. St. Victoire, paintings that I loved. A few years ago, I spent a month in Aix en Provence, where I visited his studio and walked among the locations where he painted of the mountain and quarries. What a great painter! Much to Zola's bemusement, Cezanne painted St. Victoire for 20 years...the same subject...but always working with underlying geometric forms interacting with color. While I am no Cezanne, I, too, paint the same subjects repeatedly, always seeking to interact shapes and color to create a sense of space and energy.

These subjects are inspired by extraordinary visual effects found in nature, usually while traveling: Spectacular Aurora Borealis in Iceland; Fantastic Fairy Circles on the Namibian desert. My Fairy Circles thème recalls another great artist, Sonia Delaunay, who created the first truly abstract painting in 1912. Her pioneering works continued the exploration of interacting colors with geometric shapes (with circles a predominate on...

While attending the Cleveland Institute of Art, I studied drawing and painting with Ed Mieczkowski and printmaking with H. Carroll Cassill. Besides taking art classes in Cleveland, I have taken classes at UCLA with Lee Mullican. Printmaking workshops include Crown Point Press in San Francisco. Also, I have studied photography with Peter Turnley, Elizabeth Opalenik, and Jon Paul Caponigro.

I have a BA and Master of Science, in unrelated areas.

June 2025, Exhibit of Aurora Paintings at Electrashock Studios, Venice, California

Spring 2025, Dual Virtual Exhibit with Moshgan Rezania and Roberta Jean Smith at Lola Shepard Gallery, "The Unfathomable Understanding" along with magazine publication on the exhibit.

In February 2025, exhibited at The Other Art Fair in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, CA.

23 May-5 June 2022, exhibited in Global Virtual Editions; Featured as a Director's Pick in VE Online Studios

23-26 September, 2021, exhibited at The Other Art Fair in Barker Hanger, Santa Monica Airport.

In 2021, exhibited in Virtual Editions, Los Angeles, and in the OnLine Studios for The Other Art Fair LA.

In 2019, participated the The Other Art Fair, Los Angeles.