July 21 – September 2

Opening Reception Friday, July 21st, 5-7pm

Smith’s oil paintings are vividly patterned land and water, and the mix-up of forefront & horizon. He knows how looking downward or askew is a way to find special glimmers. The brushwork is strong and high in contrast, yet leaves space for the viewer to personally interpret the scenes.

“Some of these paintings sprang to life fully formed. Others took on a life of their own as they changed their reasons for existence.

There are some I call “Quartets” which are polyptychs with no specific hierarchy within each. They started as paintings which were better off cut up and rearranged. This recycling suggested how to continue them. They are like poems, abandoned, not finished.

Some larger paintings began with compositional experiments and intention but were knocked off path into places I hadn’t expected. (I sometimes don’t plan very well.) When this works it pleases me. All the paintings try to describe the world.”                                       -David Smith

“What makes Smith’s landscapes more interesting than many others is his affinity for the abstract qualities of a scene. He makes no compositional errors, and he finds subtle transitions of value.

Smith is also a masterful technician, and even though his paintings are generally small, he has a perfect grasp of scale. It is clear that he has not just seen the smaller pieces of Monet, Sisley, and other key Impressionists– he seems to have really absorbed what they did and how they did it.”

                                                                                  -Marc Awodey, ‘A Man for All Seasons’, Seven Days, VT

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