Sharp-kun: Something about this always seemed out of place to me. Not the mood of it, just the art.
Soluzar: Does it remind anyone else of a butter commercial?
Hexon.arq: This shot reminds me of a scene in Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, in which a young man, chasing after Vincent Van Gogh, covers ground in many of the artist's paintings. While Van Gogh didn't paint anything quite like this sunflower field (that I can recall or find), the similar degree of surrealism in the change of environment is just as striking.
As for this shot in particular, the assertion seems to be that Shinji is so lost in his despairing ponderences, he wouldn't even notice if he had chanced to step into Heaven. Otherwise, there would be no need of golden skies (or else that is just one big damn field).
