Mud & Blood: coming soon!

I took my latest painting off to be scanned today, and I should have a posting of the image by next Tuesday.

In the meantime, here's the Press Release:

***

Mud and Blood – A New Painting by Ken Smith

WHO: Ken Smith, Historical Artist

WHAT: The Building of Ft. Loudoun, 1757, Painting to be Unveiled at Colonial Trade Fair

WHEN: September 8, 2007

WHERE: Fort Loudoun State Historic Area and www.kensmithhistoricalart.com

Vonore, Tennessee. He stands before you, staring you down, daring you to move, and you just know he is completely, utterly hating his life. This was the way for the South Carolina troops, who were enlisted into building Ft. Loudoun in 1756-57. As seen in Ken Smith's newest painting depicting the history of the fort, you get a sense of the people who made this moment and you feel their pain, or at least their frustration. This latest work of art will be on permanent loan to the Fort Loudoun Association and will be exhibited in the Fort Loudoun State Historic Area Visitor Center, while a limited edition of 250 prints will be available for sale to the public.

As a build-up to this historic site's 250th anniversary, the Fort Loudoun Association, the park's friends' group, has commissioned Smith to create a painting for each year of the fort's existence, depicting key elements in the life of the fort and culminating with a depiction of the fort's demise in 2010. The first painting was released last year and was called Over the Hills: Sergeant Gibbs and the Advance Party. This painting represented the relationship between the Cherokee and Redcoats and their partnership in securing a location for the building of the fort.

The second painting, Mud and Blood: Carolina Builds a Fort, shows the actual agony of such a project. Slugging away at the building process was Postell's Company of South Carolinians, while the Independent Company of South Carolina, British regulars, drill as the Cherokee watch from the sidelines. No mud or blood for them, at least not yet, as the history of the site will eventually reveal. Next year's painting promises to show a bit more camaraderie between the fort residents and their Indian brothers, and the following year becomes a bleaker still with an image representing dissension between the British and the Cherokee. The series is dramatically concluded at Cane Creek where the Cherokee massacred many members of the British unit and enslaved most of the rest–purportedly in retaliation for a similar handling of Cherokee hostages at Fort Prince George.

"I would like to show a little bit of the frustration of what were essentially National Guard troops being assigned to carry out a disagreeable task in what to them was a foreign country," Smith says about Mud and Blood. He believes in showing the humanity of the unsung heroes and villains of history, everyday people living their lives.

Ken Smith is no stranger to British life at the fort during the French and Indian War era. He volunteers in the park's living history program, portraying a private in the Independent Company. Smith's models are park volunteers, staff or other acquaintances, often painting the people who portray the characters of Fort Loudoun in the park's living history program.

Smith is the Creative Director for Media South, a full-service communications company in Knoxville, Tennessee. He holds a BFA from the University of Tennessee, an MA from Syracuse University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Hartford. Smith also teaches figure painting for the continuing education program at University of Tennessee.

Mud & Blood will be unveiled Saturday, September 8, 2007, during Fort Loudoun's Annual Colonial Trade Faire. It can be viewed starting at 10am and will remain at the park's Visitor Center after the Trade Faire is concluded. Limited edition prints of Mud & Blood will also be available for purchase at this time, as well as prints from last year's painting, Over the Hills. Smith will be on hand to personally sign prints on both Saturday and Sunday of the Trade Fair.

For more information about the Fort Loudoun's Colonial Trade Fair or to purchase prints, call Ranger Shay Steele at Fort Loudoun State Historic Area (432-884-6217), or to see more of Smith's work, visit www.kensmithhistoricalart.com.