August 1, 1997 -October 31, 1997
In the course of American art, the fields have been ignored for rangeland, farmhouses and agricultural equipment. But the Fields Masterworks by Gary Ernest Smith have helped us to see what we have so long ignored. As the son of a farmer, Gary Ernest Smith left his agricultural life to pursue visual fine arts. He still uses the land in his paintings. His paintings are not about farmers or crops and modern farming techniques and technology, but about fields of dirt in their own right. With high horizons to focus on the land, we see plowed fields, disked fields, fallow fields and stubble fields. The stark boldness of the visual images is complimented by delicate nuances of color, light and pattern running throughout each painting.
