Ancient craft intrigues artist

Woodturning artist winning in his craft

Originally published in the Tuesday, August 27, 2013 Mountain View Gazette – used with permission.
Photos by Noel West, MVP Staff

By Paul Frey
MVP Staff
Woodturning artist John Smythe is continually impressed every time he takes his lathe to a piece of wood with its different grains and colours.

“It’s like pottery in a way. You can watch it develop into shape right before your eyes. It’s intriguing, as is the decorating. Sometimes in woodturning you just turn the piece of wood into a bowl or vase or something and you don’t do anything with it because the wood itself also has a beautiful grain or character in it. Sometimes you might take a piece and enhance it,” he said.

Smythe, who is a retired accountant who resides in Olds, recently won Best of Show at the Calgary Stampede Western Showcase woodworking section for a turned and decorated butterfly vase. He estimated it took him about 60 to 70 hours to turn and decorate it from a native birch tree in northern Saskatchewan. He harvested the tree as deadfall from a trip he took there several years ago.

The 10-inch by 4.5-inch vase is turned to a wall thickness of about 1/16 of an inch. The vase was decorated with pyrography, airbrushed with acrylic paint and pierced with a high-speed air-powered dental drill. The vase was finished with lacquer.

He also won second place for a turned and carved wall sculpture in the western-themed section of the Stampede woodworking section.

Smythe has been working with wood since he was young, but only in the last five to 10 years has he started making art out of his work. Before that time, he made more practical pieces such as furniture, jewelry boxes and workbenches. He estimates he’s created about 30 pieces per year over the last five to 10 years.

“Since I retired in the last five to 10 years I’ve done more and … I’ve got more into the woodturning and the decorating and the art side of it,” he said, adding that his work evolved over time.

At 69, Smythe hopes to be woodturning for many more years, as long as he is able to do so.

“It’s like anything else in life. You start someplace and then you see something else that (is) … intriguing and you like that and it leads to something else and that’s kind of the way it is,” he said.

Being an accountant by training, Smythe said he had to make a “big transition” to think like an artist.

“That’s been a challenge for me. I love a challenge in life and for me … now that I’m retired, (woodturning is) like another kind of career. This is my passion,” he said.

Smythe said trying to find a unique design is what keeps him interested in woodturning.

Smythe said while woodturning is an ancient craft, it’s only been in the last 25 to 30 years that the tools of the trade have advanced enough to allow woodturners to make art pieces.

The best part of belonging to the Wellspring Visual Arts Network, the Airdrie Regional Art Society and the American Woodturners Association is the inspiration it gives him, Smythe said.

“You look at some of their things and you think, ‘well maybe I could apply that to woodworking.’ It’s just very inspiring to be a part of another group of artists, many of whom have had lots of training. They’re left-brained thinkers, they’ve been artistic all their life and it’s a real inspiration for me to kind of be close to those people,” he said.

• Smythe’s pieces are currently on display at the Sundre Museum as part of ArtWalk. Later, his pieces will be at the Airdrie ArtTember show from September 13 to 14 and the Wellspring Visual Arts Network’s fall art show and sale on October 26 and 27 in Olds.

Check out the original article in the Mountain View Gazette
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