Painting of the Day, October 17, 2011

My works attempt to merge ideas and memories.  Good art functions on many levels.  There is the surface appeal of subject, and below are layers that may be peeled off, revealing information about the individual artist and the psychology of his era.  There's the subject, but there is also the underlying theme. – Gary Ernest Smith

Gary Ernest Smith, Echo Canyon, 2009, oil on linen, 48 x 48 in. Private collection

Gary Ernest Smith was raised on a rural farm in Oregon and received his B.F.A and M.F.A. at Brigham Young University.  Considered a neo-regionalist who was influenced by Grant Wood and also by Maynard Dixon, Smith is nationally recognized artist whose work is in major collections and institutions and is the subject of a book by Donald Hagerty. Smith’s paintings find form in bold assertions of the western landscape, but appeal equally to an eastern audience because they capture a shared nostalgia—a collective memory of our foundation as an agrarian society.  The images tug at our most basic desire to return to an uncomplicated and honest period in time. 

“Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts”

"Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts" - By Donna L. Poulton and Vern G. Swanson - Gibbs Smith Publishing

-- Jacket Cover: Edgar Payne, "Red Mesa, Monument Valley, Utah" Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Famous movie director John Ford once exclaimed, “…Monument Valley was my greatest star.” 

--James Swinnerton, “Desert Clouds”  Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

But long before Ford lionized these great icons of the southwest, paintings of the sweeping desert and colorful canyon country of Utah’s plateau province had captured the popular imagination of American and European audiences.

--Salomon Nunes Carvalho, “Natural Obelisks” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Thomas Moran in Zion Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Vividly illustrated and exhaustively researched, “Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts” is the first comprehensive history of the artists who painted Utah’s Red Rock with more than 300 paintings spanning 155 years of art.

--David Meikle “View of Zion Canyon” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Clay Wagstaff “Late October Evening” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

The book explores the contrasts between painters who called Utah home and those who explored and visited.  The book looks at lively anecdotes of the “artist as explorer,” including John Wesley Powell’s harrowing trip down the Colorado River, artist Solomon Nunes Carvalho’s recovery from the brink of starvation, and Richard Kern’s death at the hands of the Paiutes.

--David Meikle “Mount Carmel Afternoon” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Edie Roberson “Annie’s Trip to Southern Utah” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Love of the western landscape has to do with the capacity of the viewer to experience vast space.  To appreciate the desert terrain, one has to be comfortable with an inscrutable universe.  Whether existential or spiritual, these themes are evoked in the modern paintings of Ed Mell, Conrad Buff, Maynard Dixon, Gary E. Smith and many others.

--Ed Mell “Canyon Light and Rain” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Gary E. Smith “Canyon Dweller” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts