Brett Smith

Brett James Smith was born on March 19, 1958, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In the early years, he was introduced by his grandfather to the sporting life, primarily quail hunting, in the Longleaf Pine County of east Texas. He later discovered a passion for sitting in cold, wet marshes and swamps while hunting ducks. This became Smith’s passion and the inspiration for his later works.

Smith began his career as an illustrator in New York working on assignments for books, magazines and advertising art. After a few years, he turned his attention to easel painting choosing familiar hunting and fishing scenes as the subjects of his paintings.

Today, he is considered among the best in his field. For over twenty-five years, Smith’s artwork has been prominently featured in Gray’s Sporting Journal, Sporting Classics, Field & Stream, Garden & Gun, Wildlife Art Magazine and several others. Sportsman nationwide collect his work because it is not only visually exciting, but also authentic and brings to mind his intimate knowledge of the sporting experience. “I have always loved the classic sporting scene. One that puts the viewer in a place and time that may gone but not forgotten. These are the places that generations before us took for granted, that are now being covered over with urban sprawl. In a way, I was documenting a dying tradition, a common pastime.

Smith’s paintings have helped raise millions of dollars for organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, CCA, Ruffed Grouse Society, The Atlantic Salmon Federation and many others. He divides his time with his wife Cindy and two children in Covington, Louisiana and Noxon Montana.