Daniel Smith: Taking Wildlife Realism To The Next Level
By Todd Wilkinson

A native of the Minnesota prairie, where epic retreating glaciers left behind thousands of sparkling lakes and waterways, Smith, who prefers painting in acrylic, was raised in a culture where daily interaction with nature is part of his DNA. It is a state where the jeweled presence of water leaves a permanent impression on the psyche—a constant incurable longing to submerse oneself in the elements.

His esteemed portfolio has trajected its own wide arc, encompassing enough miles of travel and reflection, to wrap around the world many times. His unquenchable thirst to research the setting for every landscape painting has taken him to the wildest corners of both the northern and southern hemispheres. He has spent weeks observing bears, wolves and moose beneath the big shouldered slopes of Mt. McKinley in Alaska; he has tromped through the southern African bush to study Cape Buffalo, lion, and rhinoceros; he was gone afield to help welcome the return of lobos to Yellowstone with fresh paintings commemorating the event; and he has sat beneath the prairie sky, transfixed by the whirring roar of thousands of migratory waterfowl wings passing overhead.