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Bob Smith once captured the tension of some of New York City’s most closely watched trials. Now retired at Brightview Senior Living in Woodburn, he is turning his pastels toward life in his Fairfax County community.

Smith sketches poker games, choir performances, birthday celebrations and visiting musicians. He often gives the finished artwork to the residents he draws, and many pieces end up framed on apartment walls.

“All the drawings I’ve done down here are in house,” Smith said.

Lisa Semonick, Brightview’s Vibrant Living Director, said Smith creates a new drawing nearly every time an entertainer visits. He also teaches his craft to other residents, rediscovering his passion while helping fellow seniors develop their own artistic skills.

Beyond Brightview, Smith teaches a class at the Thomas Jefferson Library, where he is working on a totem pole made entirely from coffee cups.

Sketching history inside New York courtrooms

Smith’s courtroom career placed him near some of the era’s most notorious defendants and cases.

In 1981, early in his career, he covered the trial of Mark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon. One of Smith’s courtroom drawings appeared on the cover of Newsday and was also published internationally.

His other assignments included proceedings involving Jean Harris, Bernhard Goetz, Imelda Marcos and Ariel Sharon, along with the Central Park Jogger, Brinks robbery and Baby M cases.

Harris, the headmistress of The Madeira School for girls in McLean, was convicted in 1981 of murdering Herman Tarnower, the cardiologist associated with the Scarsdale Diet. Smith said his drawing from the case was distributed through wire services.

He also drew Goetz, whose 1984 shooting of four young Black men on a New York subway prompted intense publicity and a national debate.

Smith even appeared as a courtroom artist extra on the television series “Law & Order.”

Courtroom artists have long provided the public with views of proceedings where cameras and microphones are restricted. Although expanding televised access could change that role, Smith believes a hand-drawn impression made inside the courtroom still carries distinctive value.