“… John Preston and Steve Lauterwasser who sometimes paint together on god-forsaken roads have the big sky thing down…” James Duncan, Des Moines blogger

Indeed, I know for a fact that Steve does have the “big sky thing down,” so to speak. When he lined his latest paintings up against the gallery’s baseboard, my first thought was that I could almost feel the intensity of the sun and hear the late summer drone/buzz of locusts. My fellow gallery worker, artist Karen Hoyt, commented with the objectivity of a seasoned art teacher, “I admire the restraint of the palette.” She then rejoined with the UN-restrained farm girl’s observation, “That looks just like the ditches on my dad’s farm!”

This immediate identification with the land is a natural response to Lauterwasser’s works. He paints in fields as well as the aforementioned god-forsaken roads, and captures an unsentimental view of the rural landscape. Ditches and expanses of weedy pastures cresting at hazy horizons push the viewer to find poetry in what is commonplace.

Lauterwasser is participating in our artist’s talk on Thursday evening at 6:30 with two additional landscape artists, Gordon Kellenberger and Marcia Wegman. I’m genuinely intrigued to learn about the distinctions and aesthetic kinships of their work.

The customary pot of soup, fresh bread and Irish oatmeal cookies will be laid out for any and all takers for as long as they last. I hope that you’ll join us. This event is free, in case you were wondering!