In this triumphant late-career work, we see Gordon Smith treat one of his most cherished subjects, snow-powdered forest thickets, with supreme delicacy and a lifetime of experience with paint. Smith’s explorations through a dazzling array of hard-edge and expressive abstract styles allowed him to return with assurance late in life to the natural vistas of the Pacific Northwest. There, he discovered the abstract qualities hidden among the branches, recalling Jackson Pollock and Jean Paul Riopelle’s all-over Abstract Expressionist treatments.

Here in Snow #2, the snow covering the forest floor creates a foggy shroud around the fine lines making up the tangle of sticks and grasses, as if they are disappearing and reappearing into a light-filled abyss. The canvas is almost entirely shade and light, with only tiny glimmers of spring greenery emerging from the underpainting of the undergrowth. Smith invites viewers into the tangle while simultaneously challenging us to orient ourselves and to find a place for our eyes to rest. A sense of grounding comes from the masterful composition, where natural organizations of line and colour field allow us to be comfortably lost in the picture as Smith intended.