ARIZONA SKETCH BOOK: Lillian Wilhelm Smith

arizona sketch book Lillian Wilhelm Smith Artist-Rancher

Lillian Wilhelm Smith came to Arizona to paint. That was fifteen years ago. She is still in Arizona, spending part of her time painting and the rest of her time helping her husband, Jess Smith, operate the Sho-Kay-Ah ranch at the foot of Oak Creek canyon.

Her family, the Wilhelms, were long established as a prominent family in New York. The fancies of Lillian Wilhelm were directed toward painting and sketching, and as so many have done before and after, she came to Arizona to paint.

She first came to the northeastern part of the state, to the Indian country.

Here was the country that challenged her passion for landscapes, this strange, mad country of vista and color of exotic, changing unbelievable color. She became enslaved by the land that she had intended to visit only for a short while, and she has tried faithfully to portray this land. She has been successful and her paintings and her name as an artist have become well known in this state and the east.

No part of Arizona and the colorful southwest is a stranger to her. Her panoramas are complete and compelling. She has found herself in lonely canyons, on high plateaus, duelling, as it were, with Nature's spectacular scenic wonders of the southwest, using her brush as a weapon. There is always reflected in her work her own passion for the western scene. Lower Oak Creek canyon, with red, weird mountains, attracted her so strongly that she and her husband settled there and her paintings of that region are some of the finest things that she has done.

The four reproductions, which we present here, are from original paintings used to illustrate two volumes of verse by Lou Ella Archer, “Sonnets of the Southwest,” and “Canyon Shadows.” “Walpi,” “Rainbow Bridge,” “Monument Valley,” and “Apache Trail,” are evidences of the sweeping color in the paintings of Lillian Wilhelm Smith.

If you live in more sombre climes and you have never had the pleasure of visiting Arizona you might doubt the veracity of the colorful portrayals of the artist. We ask you not to doubt until you have seen for yourself.

Such spectacular scenes beggar description. The vivid coloring of portions of Arizona, such as the scenes presented here, will change from hour to hour, day to day, season to season. That is the charm and lure of this western land. Always there is a bright sun blazing forth, forming intense color patterns, sharp and yet subdued, constant and yet interminably changing, almost unbelievable.

And night in this strange land of the west doesn't mean a Holy Power suddenly, abruptly lower-ing a dark, lusterless curtain. Day becomes night in our land gently and beautifully, the dimmed and dancing rays of a departing sun merrily frolicking there in the west, not vanishing until gay lights in the Heavens, called stars, make their appearance. And when such a scene is “Walpi” it truly challenges the artist who might be wandering by.

Lillian Wilhelm Smith has wandered by many lovely places in our land, and has taken many lovely portrayals with her.-R. C.