Community mourns local artist, gallery owner who died suddenly at his shop

A makeshift memorial is seen outside Smith Gallery Tiburon on downtown Tiburon Boulevard Feb. 19, a day after owner and artst Barry Smith died at the shop. It was his 70th birthday. (Francisco Martinez / The Ark)

Paradise Cay resident Barry Smith, who owned and curated Smith Gallery Tiburon downtown and ran a knife-sharpening business out of the same space, died suddenly at the shop on Feb. 18, his 70th birthday. A cause of death was not available by The Ark’s press deadline.

Smith opened the gallery in 2017, and it featured sailing art, abstract pieces, contemporary work and California-specific creations. Smith himself was a painter, working with acrylics and producing works of the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco skyline and animals, such as giraffes.

Smith’s older brother, Dana Smith, said he plans to close the business, located at 1690 Tiburon Blvd., though he noted how passionate his brother was about the gallery.

“He loved creating art, and he loved selling” it, Dana Smith said, adding: “He loved it when people came in to pitch him, sell.”

Smith greeted visitors to the gallery, as did his beloved cat, Precious, who would roam the space freely. He would frequently put canvasses outside to encourage kids walking by to paint.

Lauren Gravell, a Tiburon Peninsula resident who owns the Belvedere Island Spa nearby on Tiburon Boulevard said Smith “was one of those mayors of the town because he’s always there talking to people.”

“It just leaves a little hole in my heart not having Barry around,” Gravell said.

Barry Dean Smith was born Feb. 18, 1955, in Boulder, Colorado, to Lonnye Ann and Ewart Earl Smith as the youngest of three sons, born after eldest Eric and middle son Dana.

Smith grew up in Los Angeles’ Canoga Park neighborhood before moving to the Woodland Hills neighborhood. As children, Dana Smith said he and his brothers boated a lot in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with their grandparents, who had a trailer on one of its islands where they stayed for several summers.

“I first fell in love with the water when we were kids,” Barry Smith said in a 2018 article published in the Marin Independent Journal. “My daddy had a 36-foot powerboat at Marina Del Rey, so my brother and I used to go spear fishing in the Southern California kelp. We couldn’t get enough of being on the water.”

Smith graduated from El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills and earned a business degree at California State University at Sacramento.

During his time in college he had a job shoveling fish for a cannery, “and he didn’t like that,” Dana Smith said, which led to him getting a job in the framing business. He ran galleries and frame shops for Tower Records in Sacramento and Sherman Oaks.

He relocated to Tiburon “just by chance,” Dana Smith said, after he bought a boat and needed to move it. He was living on the boat, stationed at the Paradise Cay Yacht Harbor, at the time of his death.

He first opened the Smith Gallery Tiburon on a part-time basis. Having learned how to sharpen knives from his brother, he incorporated Smith’s Knife Sharpening into the space, with weekly pop-ups at the United Markets both in San Rafael and San Anselmo.

Brian McLachlin, who grew up in Marin, said he knew Smith for about a decade. McLachlin was living on a boat in Sausalito when he met Smith on a visit to Tiburon. Smith was painting on the street, and they struck up a conversation and became “the best of friends,” he said.

McLachlin said he was still shocked by Smith’s death.

“Everything Barry did was precise, and he always had focus, and he always tried to help other people and make them feel as good, if not better than he was,” McLachlin said.

McLachlin said Dana and Barry Smith mentored him in his own knife-sharpening ventures. McLachlin also worked on Smith’s boat and did electrical work for him.

Smith was an eager teacher to anyone and wanted to share with others whatever he was well versed in, McLachlin said.

“It was so heart-moving and emotionally affected me because who does that anymore?” McLachlin said. “He’d just let kids paint on a canvas, even if it was right or wrong, and got them to experience expression on a canvas” regardless of ability, race or age.

“It was amazing how he would just bring people out of their shell and express themselves,” he said.

That sentiment was shared by Gravell. She said Smith would set up easels for kids who want to paint and pass out treats to dogs. While she only knew him for about six months, she said their friendship grew quickly as she would stop by the gallery daily to chat.

“We were just peeling back the onions of experience and shared trust in a friendship that develops,” Gravell said. “It’s a sweet thing, and he just disappeared. It’s just what death does. One minute he was there, and the next minute he was not.”

Gravell saw Smith the day before he died and said he was happy, looked healthy and was in good spirits. They hugged goodbye that day.

“I’m just so glad I hugged him goodbye because that would be the last time I saw him alive,” she said.

McLachlin noted Smith and Precious were popular with patrons, as was Chewbacca, Smith’s former dog.

“Whenever anybody walked by that shop, their anxiety just seemed to fall out, and they were able to intervene or collaborate or have some feeling of comfort, whether it was through painting or through his dog, Chewbacca, or his cat, Precious,” he said.

Brother Eric is now taking care of Precious, Dana Smith said.

Dana said the gallery allowed Smith to do his favorite thing — talk to people about art.

“He loved it,” Dana Smith said. “One-hundred percent.”

Smith is survived by his brothers, Eric and Dana.

A memorial service will be held later, with those interested encouraged to visit the gallery to sign up for notifications, Dana Smith said. Donations can be made to Marin Humane.

Additionally, Dana said he and Eric plan to sell their brother’s works as part of closing the shop, and that all proceeds will go to settling his estate’s medical bills. Further details will be posted outside the gallery.

Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.