Untitled, 1973

Marlborough Godard, Toronto Private Collection, Toronto

Ian M. Thom and Andrew Hunter, “Gordon Smith: The Act of Painting”, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1997, pages 39-40

In the early 1970s Gordon Smith was experimenting with colour and hard-edge painting, and according to Ian M. Thom, the artist seemed to be ‘in crisis’ about his painting. “The hard-edge works were, perhaps too far removed to really satisfy him on an ongoing basis,” notes Thom. “He felt the need to return to an image, and the struggle was to define both the image itself and the approach to it.” From 1972-74, Gordon created his “Seawall” series of paintings, which marked a new direction in his artistic practice. The paintings are composed of a grid formation and simplified landscape view, reminiscent of the west coast landscape. The grid formation is evocative of the grid Smith employed in his compositions of the 1950s, but the small cells of the grid have fluctuated to transform into a large window. The handling of the paint has evolved, in that the glaze allows undercoats of paint to be visible, creating a sense of movement within a more complex composition. Thom’s observation on the “Seawall” series is that, “The geometrics of the hard-edge paintings are still present but in a muted form. The paint is applied in numerous layers, which build up a sense of inner light in a way that is quite different from his earlier practice.” The inspiration for these “Seawall” paintings came from walking along the shores of the west coast beaches and sailing the waters of Howe Sound. Critic Joan Lowndes remarked that the paintings have “an extraordinary luminosity and deep sensitivity to the subtle harmonies of colour seen on the west coast.”