Local Artist 'Paints the Town'

Perhaps you´ve seen Tom Smith in your travels along Foothill Blvd. – for sure you´ve seen his artwork. He´s a slight man with a curling gray ponytail and paint spots on his jeans. He´ll probably have a brush in his hand and an open car trunk full of paint cans. If you listen closely, you may even hear a whisper of jazz music…

For twenty years Tom Smith has painted cartoon decorations or advertising on windows and walls of scores of businesses in Sunland-Tujunga.

"Doc," the editor of The Foothills Paper first saw him across the parking lot painting a large French skunk on a Verdugo Hills Deli & Liquor Store window. I´ve seen his handiwork on Commerce Street (Wag My Tail Pet Grooming), on Foothill Blvd. (Vasquez Jewelry, Foothill Wellness Center), and on Sunland Blvd. (Kim´s Pet Palace).

His main gig in winter is painting Christmas decorations – Santas, Snowmen, kids on sleds – but he´s up for any holiday or seasonal decoration. It may be ghosts and ghouls on Halloween, hearts and Rafael-like cupids on Valentine´s Day, a cornucopia, or a cheerful batch of spring flowers.

He´ll even paint caricatures of real people, such as Kathy Anthony´s grandkids on her "Kathy´s Kreation´s" store window in Sunland. Wendy Gruel and the STNC recently awarded Kathy´s business for having the "Best Frontage" display. "Tom´s paintings are my frontage," said the store owner proudly. "He just added our newest grandchild."

Tom says he doesn´t like to drive very far these days and only paints windows "from Sunland Park to Ocean View." Sounds like a pretty big art gallery to me, Tom!

But before you dismiss Tom as "merely" a cartoon illustrator, you should know that he is also a talented portrait painter. On easels and stacked against his walls are beautiful, framed portraits in acrylics or pastels. Others are safely stored in large chests or as Polaroid photos in albums.

A stunning likeness of jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis, and another of John Lennon (autographed by the musician himself) caught my attention. There is a self portrait of a much younger Tom, another of his mother.

"I like painting people," the artist admits. "Real light hitting real flesh…you can´t beat it!" But Tom also paints from photos. "I´ve painted almost every president from Truman on up." When asked if a portrait of Obama was a possibility, he said, "Yes, if I can get the right photo. Lighting is important."

Born and raised in Iowa, and encouraged and influenced by his musician father, Tom´s love of cartoon drawing surfaced early. A retired professor neighbor who saw some of the 10-year-old´s cartoons put in a word for him to Dick Spencer III (at one time the owner & editor of Western Horseman magazine) who was teaching Editorial Cartooning at the University of Iowa. He agreed to tutor Tom.

"We met every day that summer in his studio inside an old Quonset hut. He´d give me an assignment – say, a baseball player at bat – and I´d draw it."

By the time Tom was 13 or 14, he was drawing the editorial cartoons for the Daily Iowan. "I was a pint sized illustrator in a big office. The editor would say what the editorial was about, and we´d discuss ideas for the cartoon. I was really into Eisenhower and Korea in those days."

Tom graduated high school in 1957, writing his senior thesis on Animated Cartooning. After two years at Iowa U. (at his Dad´s insistence), he came to Los Angeles to study at the Chouinard Art Institute (now, Disney´s Cal-Arts in Valencia). He loved the Animated Drawing class using live models, but when he was showed the first step in actual animation - tracing drawings – he was turned off and headed back to Iowa.

For seven years Tom was totally away from drawing. He got a job going door to door selling cookware, did a stint in the Marine Corps Reserve, and got married. When he returned to LA, he remained in sales for a couple years before starting classes again at the Art Center.

In 1970 he moved his family to Fort Lauderdale where he though of selling caricatures. He drew a couple samples, showed them to hotel guests and before long was painting two a day. He´d draw life-like heads in full color then ask the person what they wanted the "little bodies" to be like.

His son, Leonardo (a painter too) was born there.

A couple years later he was doing the same thing on Hollywood Blvd, using caricatures he´d painted of Johnny Carson and Diana Ross as samples. "Here´s where my door to door sales experience helped." He found many customers in Hollywood hair styling salons and gay bars. And he painted willing nudes at Pirate´s Cove beach "every chance I got."

For a while Tom painted with Hector Ponce, the premier Latino muralist, whose paintings stretch 20 stories high on some LA buildings.

"One day I saw some Christmas decorations on a store window and thought, ´that might be fun.´" And so it was.

If you are interested in hiring Tom to paint for you (either a store window or a portrait) contact him at (818) 273-4740.

Reprinted with permission from The Foothills Paper in Tujunga, CA.