Meet the Artist

Katy Smith is a plein air landscape artist specializing in paintings of locations on the Central Coast of California. She finds her inspiration directly from the world around her. She enjoys painting locations of historical significance both to capture their beauty and to draw awareness to those places that need to be conserved for future generations.
She has been influenced in her work by many notable artists both present and past including Elizabeth Tolley, Barbara Tapp, Michael Obermeyer, Dave Santillanes, Edgar Payne and Albert Bierstadt. Her subject matter and loose brushwork lean toward California Impressionism/The Eucalyptus School with a subtle sense of romanticism and the color palette of the Hudson River School. Her work has been described as “ethereal”.
Her love for plein air painting runs in the family and the paintings she grew up with on the walls at home had the largest impact on her. Two relatives were plein air painters in Southern California: Richard Earl “Twister Mac” McBurney was a member of the Desert Art Center in the mid 1900s and James Edwin McBurney was an Art teacher at Los Angeles High School and a key player in the development of the Art Colony at Laguna Beach in the early 1900s where he taught some of the first Summer painting classes on the beach and organized the first exhibition of student work. Another relative, Ethel McBurney, was a prolific painter as well.
Smith lives with her husband and 4 children in Orcutt, a small town in the beautiful Santa Maria Valley in Northern Santa Barbara County. She studied to be a teacher at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo where she was encouraged to be an Art Specialist. Smith has taught Art for various community organizations and public schools over the last 20 years. She taught weekly K-12 classes and professional development workshops for teachers through Dakota Hill Art Studio until she stepped away from teaching to paint fulltime in 2023. Her work can be found on display in several galleries on the Central Coast.
Galleries:
San Luis Obispo County
- Costa Gallery – 2087 10th Street, Los Osos, CA 93402 – (805)799-9632
- Morro Bay Art Center – 835 Main Street, Morro Bay, CA 93442 – (805)772-2504
Santa Barbara County
- Dakota Hill Art Studio – Orcutt, CA 93455 – by appointment only (805)598-2559
- Steller’s Cellar – 400 E. Clark Ave., Orcutt, CA 93455 – (805)623-5129
Art Associations:
- Founder and Administrator of Waxed Watercolors
- Founder and Administrator of Plein Air Club
- Member of the California Art Club
- Member of Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA)
- Member of Morro Bay Art Association
- Member of Dreamlineartists
- Associate Member and Social Media Chairperson of Women Artists of the West
Press:
- Featured on page 22 of the New Times San Luis Obispo Spring Arts Annual 2023 for a Solo Show of Studies Under Glass – Watercolors by Katy Smith at Costa Gallery, Los Osos, CA- 3/2023
- Featured in Outdoor Painter – 1/2023 Are Nocturnes Easier to Paint?
- Featured in Outdoor Painter – 4/2022 How Much Should Your Plein Air Painting Gear Weigh?
- Featured in Orcutt Pioneer – 7/2022 Steller’s Cellar Finally Opens in Old Orcutt
- Featured in Outdoor Painter – 10/2021 The Best Plein Air Umbrellas For Artists
- Featured in Outdoor Painter – 5/2021 Connecting With Artist Friends Online En Plein Air
- Featured in Outdoor Painter – 1/2021 Painting Aha Moments
- Featured on Orcutt Artists Series – 10/2020 Katy Smith, Plein Air Watercolor
- Featured in Orcutt Pioneer 1/2020 Falling in Love with Art for Pleasure: Local Artist and Teacher Katy Smith