“Souvenirs of the Riviera is the most recent fruit of a 30-year collaboration between writer David Bruce Smith and the late artist, Clarice Smith. Mr. Smith’s poignant and moving text, punctuated by historic and literary references (Mr. Smith’s signature writing style), imparts to Ms. Smith’s vivid and resonant paintings the unique charm of an artistic imagination overlaid with painterly evidence of time and place.

 

“Ms. Smith’s superb command of color and form bring the beauty of the Riviera to us, all the while Mr. Smith’s text tells a story of love and loss and finding solace in the familiar landscape of the South of France. A cat, magnificently drawn by Ms. Smith, “watches over” her as she longs for the husband she has lost, her imaginings so vivid, in Mr. Smith’s words, that she reaches out to touch his hand. Mr. Smith adds his wit to these wonderfully affective scenes, describing, in this case, Ms. Smith as so emotionally wrought over the vision she’s had of her husband standing next to her that she wishes she might indulge in a drink—but noting that it’s rather late, at her age, to pick up bad habits.

 

“The paintings included in the book show the breadth of Ms. Smith’s work, demonstrating that she is equally at home in her paintings evoking the thunderclap of horses in dead heat as she is the delicate beauty of a flower. The book has recourse to the term, odyssey, and an odyssey it is, taking us on an eventful and adventurous journey to the lovely landscape, both peopled and pristine, of the magical French Riviera.”