When friends told Ann Smith the still lifes and landscapes she painted were good enough to sell, she would say dismissively, "Oh, sure!"
However, to her surprise, after she retired from BellSouth and turned her full attention to painting, she began exhibiting her work in galleries in North Georgia and North Carolina and, more important, she found buyers.
Nevertheless, said Debbie Lamb, owner of The Art House gallery in Buckhead, simply selling paintings wasn't nearly as fulfilling for Mrs. Smith as the satisfaction she took in knowing that people thought enough of her work to display it in their homes.
"Ann had a right-sized ego for an artist," Mrs. Lamb added. "She was confident in her work, but she never took on airs."
Mrs. Smith's paintings have a very distinctive look, Mrs. Lamb said: "A feminine touch with soft, gentle brush strokes. Yet for a tiny woman, she produced big canvasses."
Mrs. Lamb acquired a painting by Mrs. Smith well before she met her and began exhibiting her paintings. "It's a beautiful still-life and six years after I bought it, I still love it," she said.
Ann Jacob, owner of Ann Jacob Gallery in Highland, N.C., declared Mrs. Smith was her No. 1 artist.
"My clients loved her work, some of them buying four or five of her paintings," she said.
Ms. Jacob described Mrs. Smith as a prolific producer of mostly impressionistic artwork, with "not a lot of detail but a remarkable color sense."
Mrs. Smith was highly respected by other artists, too, Ms. Jacob said. "Some of them were clearly influenced by her style, but they couldn't match her palate," she said.
Another exhibiter of her paintings, Ron Alexander, manager of Hawthorn House Interiors in Athens, said Mrs. Smith was a lively person and that came through in the way she used color and composition.
"People could visualize themselves in her paintings, standing by her still lifes or in the midst of her landscapes," he said.
Ann Kendrick Smith, 67, was killed in a fire Jan. 26 at her Rabun County residence near Clayton. A memorial service for her is at 1 p.m. Saturday at St. James Episcopal Church in Clayton. Cremation Society of Georgia is in charge of arrangements.
John Smith, her husband, said the fire broke out in the middle of the night, but the two of them managed to get outside.
"My attention was diverted getting our dogs out before I realized she had gone back to try to save other pets and she never returned," he said.
"At our Rabun County house, we kept two dogs, five cats and a number of goldfish inside and a dozen cats outside in a shelter that a carpenter built for them. Over the years, we figured Ann rescued 37 dogs and 30 cats," Mr. Smith said.
Previous to their move to Rabun County in 2003, the Smiths lived in Atlanta. Over an 18-year career with BellSouth, Mrs. Smith trained new employees in the company's marketing division, rising to a managerial position there herself.
She and her husband had a house in Peachtree Hills with a carriage house in back with her studio on the second floor and there she painted for her own pleasure. Mrs. Smith received her early training as an artist at Bennett College in Millbrook, N.Y., and supplemented that years later with study in France and Italy.
ShielaRobinette, a neighbor and friend, called Mrs. Smith the cat lady of Peachtree Hills.
"Ann would rescue feral cats, had them neutered or spayed, kept them until they were socialized and found homes for them. I have one of them myself, a 16-year-old I named Annie in Ann's honor. Ann knew all there was to know about feral cats," Mrs. Robinette said.
Plans are underway for an exhibit and sale of Mrs. Smith's paintings in April. Proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Atlanta Humane Society and the Boggs Mountain Humane Shelter.
Aside from Mrs. Smith's husband, there are no immediate survivors.
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