though with enough tender humor to not hurt my feelings.   She told me that whenever in or near the Village she always hears some jazz whether at the Vanguard, the Blue Note or wherever.  But most often she ends up at Bradley’s for the last set because it’s also where many musicians go after playing their own gigs.  She compared Bradley’s to relaxing in the cozy living room intimacy of old and dear friends which for her is represented by the music.

I last reviewed Andrea Belag’s paintings when she had a solo show at the Bill Maynes gallery in October 2003.  So here we are about 3 and a half years later and what has changed?  The paintings then were more involved with an assertive surface handling and particular attention given to the grid as a structure. Additionally the contrast was more dramatically articulated.  The paintings now have what I

Andrea Belag, Out of the Blue, 2007, oil on canvas, 36 x 30 in

Andrea Belag, Shadow of Doubt, 2007, oil on canvas, 72 x 66 in

would call a Zen-like confidence absent from those 2003 paintings.  The texture remains and the grid has not completely disappeared but Belag is more relaxed with this work.  This should not be misunderstood to mean that the artist is any less serious; rather it’s just the opposite.  With these pieces Belag truly celebrates the best qualities of abstract painting in which a delicious but also engaging mixture of color and texture is created.

So how delicious is this work?  In other words, does Belag bump up against ornamentation with these paintings?  That might appear to be so when you see the soft textures and the vibrant color combinations.  However, the compositions mitigate all this such as in a piece like Shadow of a Doubt. In this painting the four general sections establish a reference to the grid. But now look at what Belag does with it.  The vertical lines created by the edges of the forms curve organically which counters an imposed sense of order. The surface handling suggests rich heavily woven cloth as constitutes drapery material.  This persists throughout the work and on one