Harold Smith’s newest paintings take familiar works of art like Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” and Leonardo DaVinci’s “The Last Supper” and reimagines them with people he grew up with.
On a recent August morning, the artist Harold Smith was starting on his first painting of the day in his home studio, just off State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. He picked up a brush full of metallic pearl-tinted paint and started mixing it on his palette.
“Gotta be careful in the morning,” Smith said. “More than once I’ve accidentally taken a sip of my paint water instead of my coffee, not paying attention.”…