CONVERSATION

7 April – 1 May 2010

Gary Smith grew up in the industrial town of Geelong on the Bellarine Peninsular of Victoria. He developed an early fascination with the flare from the oil refinery chimney; a waxing and waning beacon that is visible over vast distances and looms on the coastal skyline day and night.

Despite its underlying imagery of the petroleum industry, this new body of work is still aligned with his reductive approach to landscape and focus on pure painting and retains the stillness and Oriental ‘sensibility’ and silkiness of surface that is distinctive of his oeuvre.

45
Acrylic and pigment on canvas
46cm x 46cm