Although his studies and experiments were extensive, Gary Ernest Smith is most often labeled a regionalist drawing comparisons to such artists as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. The work of Gary Ernest Smith reflects the artist, expressive but humble, and is grounded in the rural and religious. The social commentary is a sturdy hymn of the beauty of hard work, a lament for a way of life that is at risk of fading away, and the beauty that exists in everyday scenesnot just the extraordinary.