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visual arts Seven. W e l l , that about b o w l e d me over! It was wonderful." In spite o f the recognition and praise he has earned. S m i t h finds it difficult to be satisfied with the quality of his work. He constantly tries to surpass himself, so it isn't surprising that he's pleased only with his most recent paintings. "The best work I've done is since I was 70, for the last eight years, so that anything before that I ' m not really especially interested i n . " F r o m among the paintings collected in his last e x h i b i tion at the Vancouver A r t G a l l e r y in 1988, he likes "one or two." A couple o f large canvasses were hanging from the 20-foot walls o f Smith's painting studio. Otherwise, the overall impression is o f a w o r k space scrubbed clean, with everything stored in its proper place. One reason for the studio's neatness is that S m i t h carries out occasional purges. "I go through my paintings and I just rip them up. I've got very few, very few things left." A t a turning point in his career about 20 years ago, merely ripping up canvasses wasn't enough. That's when Smith had a huge bonfire o f paintings he'd decided had become c l i c h é . He has no regrets about anything that went up in flames: " N o . I ' m pleased I d i d . I really am. I kept a few prints and things, not any big paintings." The bonfire had a cathartic effect: it helped S m i t h reach a new stage in his work. A characteristic that links much of Smith's work is a response, through varying levels o f abstraction, to the landscape o f the West Coast. It's impossible for h i m to ignore his surroundings. " W h e n I taught at university I always used to go through Stanley Park, and I had a boat and I'd go out to sea. We live in a place like this, and I love this, and I love all those things that are around us very m u c h . " S m i t h believes that there's always some clue in his work that suggests landscape, even in his recent big black-and-white abstract paintings. It isn't easy for S m i t h to express a fond attachment, as some artists do, to any one o f his paintings, and his successes take h i m by surprise. H e recalls how a painting he hadn't seen for some time struck h i m as being wonderful. But before the words were out. his internal critic tempered his initial enthusiasm: " N o t a w o n derful one. It looks good." Whatever his protestations and doubts, G o r d o n S m i t h possesses an u n c o m p r o m i s i n g passion for translating his experience o f the land into paintings that strike with the impact o f truth. F o r S m i t h , who describes himself as a " l y r i c a l painter." painting isn't just c o p y i n g . Nature is transformed by his distinctive way o f observing it. He w o u l d say that it's all in the way the paint is handled, en G o r d o n Smith:The A c t of Painting runs I998, Please from October 19 to January Art for I I, at the Vancouver phone 662-4700 Gallery. more g " TM ^ <^ 5 information. Ben D'Andrea is a freelance Vancouver. writer liv- ing in North