Dinah Maxwell Smith 'Hails' Beach, Dogs And Oil Paints

For artist Dinah Maxwell Smith, the smell of home is dog and oil paint.

“I love it,” Ms. Smith said, inhaling deeply while strolling through the threshold of her Southampton Village abode. “I mean, I’m sure other people don’t ...”

An urgent pitter-patter of paws on wood interrupted her thought, as two balls of fur skidded down the hallway and into Ms. Smith’s arms.

“Hi, Quincy. Hi, Brady,” she cooed to her standard poodle and Norfolk terrier, respectively. “Let’s see what Parker’s up to.”

On cue, the dogs half-skipped into the kitchen, where they waited for their owner as she disappeared around a corner. Almost soundlessly, Parker—a lithe gentle giant—bounded into the room, startling Brady and Quincy, to Ms. Smith’s amusement.

“He’s a borzoi. He’s only 11 months old,” she laughed, catching up with the Russian wolfhound, whose back reaches nearly to her waist. “And he’s only going to get bigger.”

She bent down, just slightly, to pet Parker, but she was too slow. He was already chasing a much-smaller Quincy into the living room, itching to play. There is usually no stopping him, Ms. Smith said, adding that she rarely takes him for walks, even just down the street past the Southampton Historical Museums’ Rogers Mansion, where the artist is exhibiting “Hail to the Beach,” a retrospective of her contemporary oils dating 1986 to 2012—vibrant, impressionist scenes, from France to the East End, that capture the human condition through movement, gesture and stance.

“Landscapes are too easy. It’s a crowd-pleaser,” she said. “Nobody can quarrel with your landscapes. I just love that thing about people. There’s something wonderful about the way people move. And dogs, too.”

Ms. Smith said she knew she would be an artist at age 5. During an art class at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, she painted a red car to the tune of “The Nutcracker Suite” playing softly in the background and brought it home to show her older brother, Steve, a car enthusiast.

“You didn’t paint that,” he said, incredulous.

“Yes, I did!” the little artist insisted.

Mr. Smith—who eventually went on to become a contributing editor for Car and Driver magazine—apparently knew talent when he saw it, even if he didn’t believe it lived within his sister. By age 13, the artist knew she wanted to attend Rhode Island School of Design, which she eventually did, though not before studying oils at the Académie Julian in France at age 17.

“I remember walking in the door, and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. The smell ...” she breathed out, “it was heaven. All the sensual stuff about oil painting was right there. It was in the air. It was in the rooms. It was remarkable. Sometimes, I can smell Paris in here.”

She gestured around her home and sat down on her couch. “Come on, everybody,” she said to her dogs, patting the two seats on either side of her as her pair of cats—15-year-old brothers Snowie and Zoolie—looked on. “What do you think, Brades? You can bring the toy with you.”

A stuffed pink bone securely in her mouth, the standard poodle hopped up on the right of Ms. Smith, while Quincy jumped up in the middle, between her legs. The monstrous Parker took the last spot to the left.

Ms. Smith was buried in pooches.

“I’m in here!” she waved her hand from underneath her pile of dogs. “Sit down, honey,” she commanded the largest of the three.

Parker obliged, but not before trying to fit Quincy’s entire head inside his mouth, as Brady chomped contently on her fuzzy bone.

“He likes to bite—we have a lot of teeth here,” Ms. Smith shook her head, shooing Parker’s jaws away from the smaller pup. “They have to get along, though. They don’t have a choice. Hey! Don’t be a bully!”

She yanked Parker’s teeth off Quincy’s tousled head once again, gripped his snout and gave it a little shake. He finally relented, flopping into his owner’s lap.

“Oofph,” she gasped, winded, and burst into laugher. “He’s nuts. You’re a very funny boy.”

“Hail to the Beach,” featuring oil paintings by Dinah Maxwell Smith, will open with a reception on Saturday, June 7, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Rogers Mansion in Southampton. Free admission. The exhibit will remain on view through October 18. Hours are Wednesday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $4 and free for members and children age 17 and under. For more information, call (631) 283-2494, or visit southamptonhistoricalmuseum.org.