^{So enfolded in that gaudy house (2006)}

^{The color of the land through which they passed (2006)}

I just saw about a dozen of these, and they surprised me, most pleasantly. (In person they are far subtler than in reproduction.)

Every once in a while, as your eye scans across a Joe Shlichta painting, you will be unable to tell precisely what color you’re looking at—in these luxurious moments, the hues are precisely between one and another, hovering in the middle of strange-scapes that might be taking place in the sky, or in a foggy swamp, or anywhere but on the plain, gravity-bound earth.

This emerging Seattle painter was a children’s book illustrator before
he decided to begin painting abstractions for adults. (He was trained at Otis Parsons in LA and Cornish in Seattle.)

Check out his work through Saturday at Ballard Fetherston Gallery.