Chad Smalt was born in New York. He dabbled in art in high school, but a Drawing 1 class with Dave Higgins solidified his interest. Now, he paints “because he can’t think of anything better to do”; he advises young artists not to pursue art unless they care about it. Smalt’s work is personal; he often paints nostalgic childhood scenes. Smalt manipulates oil paint into photographic realism, delineating light and shadow with subtle precision or melts paint into dreamy abstract landscapes. His ghostly landscapes resemble the paintings of American Realists such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, and the minimalist color-field compositions of Mark Rothko. He has also written several multimedia stories. “Chad once thought he saw something in the distance,” he writes about himself; “no one believes it is still there, but he is still trying to paint it today.”

Sources include:
Impart Art, https://www.impartart.net/works-for-sale/p/s489j7qush4ok7xehgi7xgwyekdtcv
Sky in Session, http://www.sky-in-session.com/about/
West End Talk, https://westendtalk.wordpress.com/category/artists/chad-smalt-artists/