My work is rooted in classical painting with the conviction that beauty, order, and moral clarity remain vital in an age that often celebrates their opposites. Trained in the traditions of figurative drawing, oil technique, and Renaissance proportion, I re-voice the grand narrative subjects (revelations, temptations, strength, fall, and redemption) that have oriented Western culture for centuries.

  At the center of my practice stands the human figure, proportioned and poised within the Vitruvian ideal, yet placed against contemporary storms of chaos and disintegration. Paintings such as Firmitas-Vitruvian Revelation, SinOMatic, and Babel are deliberate meditations on firmitas (strength), utilitas (utility), and venustas (beauty) as articulated by Vitruvius and embodied in Leonardo’s archetype. These three principles are not merely architectural; they are moral imperatives. When they are honored, civilization coheres, when abandoned, civilization fractures.

   I paint in traditional oil, mixed mediums on linen or panel, often on a monumental scale, employing layered glazes and precise draftsmanship to achieve both depth and sculptural presence. The carved frames I design and execute myself are, at times, not ornamental afterthoughts but integral extensions of the canvas—wooden architecture that reinforces the theme of measured order against encroaching turmoil and chaos.

  My subject matter returns to biblical moments of decision: the serpent’s offer, forbidden fruit, building towers toward heaven, the calm eye at the center of apocalyptic turmoil. These are urgent confrontations with present-day questions of truth, lusts and consequence. My imagery is severe, at time hierarchical because I believe the word of the one true omnipotent God, spiritually, morally and aesthetically, the ladder by which the soul ascends isn’t by oppression but liberation.

  In an art world that frequently mistakes shock for depth and fragmentation for authenticity where artists break apart, distort, or incomplete their work — visually, narratively or materially to signal that it is authentic. I choose discipline of mastery, coherence and reverence. My aim is not to provoke discomfort for its own sake, but to offer a vision of transcendent possibility: that even amidst ruin, the human form—rightly proportioned, rightly oriented—can still reflect divine intention and withstand the storm.

Justin Todd Smith

Charlottesville, Virginia

2025