About the Artist

Oil painter Casey Smith, Memphis-based artist, working in his home studio

Exploring Rhythm, Structure, and Visual Language

Casey Smith is a Memphis-based oil painter, bassist, and visual arts educator whose creative practice bridges sound and sight through the fundamental Elements of Art—line, shape, color, texture, space, pattern, and value. Across both canvas and music, his work reflects a disciplined exploration of rhythm, balance, and emotional clarity.

For more than four decades, Casey has been an active presence in the Mid-South arts community, exhibiting, donating works, creating album art, and contributing to visual culture throughout Memphis and its surrounding areas. His paintings are grounded in classical fundamentals yet remain open to spontaneity, allowing complex emotion to emerge from restrained form.

Raised in Memphis during the 1980s, Casey developed his artistic foundation among a community of largely self-taught creatives who helped shape the city’s evolving visual scene. His early murals—most notably in the Cooper–Young district and at Ronnie Grisanti & Sons—reflected a commitment to art that lives in shared, everyday spaces rather than exclusively in galleries.

Casey holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Art Education from the University of Memphis and spent more than 20 years teaching visual art, guiding students of all ages to discover their own creative voices through design, composition, and observation. Teaching continues to inform his studio work, reinforcing a belief that creativity develops through structure, attention, and sustained practice.

A Practice Shaped by Rhythm and Form

Music & Visual Rhythm

Alongside his work as a painter, Casey is a deeply rooted Memphis musician. He began playing bass guitar at age 14 and learned through direct experience on Beale Street, immersed in the traditions of blues and soul. For over 40 years, he has studied and played bass guitar daily, cultivating a rhythm-driven sensibility that closely parallels his visual work.

Since 2004, Casey has performed with singer-songwriter Ted Horrell, including regular performances with Ted Horrell and the Monday Night Card—a name referencing the historic wrestling era of the Mid-South Coliseum. Together, they opened the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival in 2006, and Casey’s work as a musician can be heard on WEVL. He also performs weekly with his church band, Prism Riot.

Rather than existing as separate pursuits, painting and music inform one another. Both rely on rhythm, repetition, restraint, and improvisation—allowing structure to support expression rather than overpower it.

Current Practice

Today, Casey’s studio practice centers on painting, with music remaining an active and inseparable influence on how the work is conceived and developed. His deep understanding of rhythm, harmony, and improvisation—shaped by decades of daily engagement with bass guitar—naturally informs his approach to composition, movement, and balance on the canvas.

Working primarily in oil, Casey continues to produce original paintings alongside a curated selection of fine art prints, while also offering one-on-one instruction grounded in artistic fundamentals and creative process.

Selected Focus Areas

Original oil paintings
Figurative, narrative, and place-based work
Music-informed visual rhythm
Studio practice grounded in fundamentals

Commissions

Casey accepts a limited number of commissioned works, approached with the same care, intention, and respect for process as his studio paintings.

Learn More about Commissions

Studio & Learning

Casey’s teaching extends into the Learning Studio, an evolving educational space developed in collaboration with educator Melissa Smith. This work focuses on visual fundamentals, creative thinking, and accessible pathways back into art-making.

Explore the Learning Studio