Barbara A., 56, died unexpectedly at her home on Monday, November 26, 2001 in Grand Isle, VT. Barbara was born on June 17th, 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Clinton and Claire (Kelley) Bagenstose. She attended the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston and was a graduate of Tufts University. She was married to David F. Smail on June 23, 1968 in Winchester, Massachusetts. With the birth of her first child she decided to leave her career in occupational therapy to become a full-time artist so that she could work at home with her children. After living in Boston, Oregon, and Alaska she moved to Williston in 1975. She poured energy and creativity into her art and into the growth of the Burlington art community. She had been president of the Northern Vermont Artists' Association and a Trustee of the Vermont Arts Council. She helped to found the Firehouse Gallery and the Vermont Women's Caucus for Art, of which she had been president. But her outstanding trait remained her devotion to her family. Her generosity and selflessness won her many dear friends. In 1992 she moved to a lakeside farmhouse in Grand Isle. This home is filled with her bold and colorful work. In an interview given when she was the Featured Artist of the Mountain Lake PBS Arts Auction in 1999 she said," I paint from my environment, and on it." In her home there are many paintings on paper depicting that farming town as well as portraits and still life, but there are also works done on tables and chairs, lamps, walls, floors, and the bathtub. She worked in oils, ink, pastel and sculpture, but her favorite medium was watercolor because of its challenging immediacy. She was an art instructor at the Church Street Center of the University of Vermont and at the Community College of Vermont. A generation of Vermont artists is grateful for her loving, patient, and effective teaching. In February 1999 she was diagnosed as having non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She finished treatment in May 2000 and had been in complete remission since then. Her strength and enthusiasm for all of life had returned and at the time of her death she had multiple art projects underway and she had returned to teaching watercolor. She had over 20 solo exhibits throughout Vermont and in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts. Her work was shown in over 40 juried and invitational exhibits in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Her primary galleries were Furchgotte and Sourdiffe Gallery in Shelburne, VT, Polonaise Gallery in Woodstock, VT, Virginia's Gallery in Stonington, ME and AVA Gallery in Hanover, NH. In addition to her husband David, she is survived by her sons David Smail, Jr. and his wife Julie Clifford-Smail of Cranston, RI, and Garon Turcotte-Smail and his wife Michelle Turcotte-Smail of Seattle, WA, by her sisters Claire Knox and her husband Jim of Bridgton, ME, and Joan Curtis and her husband Phil of Bradenton, FL, by her mother-in-law Ethel Smail of Stoughton, MA, and by many nieces and nephews.

(Published in the Boston Globe.)