George Billis Gallery | Through 2/19 | Los Angeles, CA

Scenes from a Car

Exhibition Watermarks featuring new, highly realistic paintings by Karen Woods on view in LosAngeles

Now on view at George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles is the exhibition Watermarks featuring approximately 18 new, highly realistic paintings by esteemed artist Karen Woods. Gallery director Tressa Williams notes that Woods’ new collection is “coaxing us to recognize the transcendent experiences offered by the most mundane or ordinary surroundings of our daily lives.” The artist creates vignetted views of the suburbs and incorporates water in the scene as well.Doorway, oil on canvas, 11 x 17"“Woods paints a traveler’s view through the window of a moving vehicle rendered in subtly nuanced gestures in oil on canvas or panel,” Williams adds. “These views from the front seat of a car, looking through an often rain-splattered windshield or side window, are always about water: water from above, as a rainstorm or from below, as a man-made sprinkler system. The compositions often include a bit of the car—the edge of a window, a side mirror, the clear curved area left by a windshield wiper—these markers situate the viewer on the journey Woods is on.”Reflection, oil on canvas, 12 x 18"Woods notes that the new paintings are scenes she’s always loved. “I can’t seem to get away from painting a streetscape through a rainy windshield,” she says.
“I love the way it plays with the light and little rivulets can cut a telephone pole right in half. Just one drop can really changes a whole perspective.”

This can be seen in Doorway, depicting a view of a lit doorway, framed by a car side mirror and rain droplets on the car window. Woods has expanded her body of work to include night scenes like in Doorway, along with paintings of sprinklers. “I love when a sprinkler is lit from behind whether on a lawn on side of freeway,” the artist explains. “It glows and it’s so beautiful. I know it’s wasteful when it’s running on the sidewalk, but it makes a beautiful reflection.” The importance of water is at the forefront of Woods’ mind while creating, but notes that her work isn’t about climate change or water conservation, and is more about the “joy of what I see.” Highway with Pale Sky, oil on canvas, 16 x 38"The sprinkler series began with the aptly named piece Reflection, showing the orange glow of sprinklers wetting a lawn and sidewalk. “I can still remember pulling over and thinking how lovely this was,” says Woods. “It was a calm dynamic, and it also causes me to pause and reflect on something so ordinary, yet so beautiful. There’s nothing special about these places [I’m painting]. Reflection is from a photo of an office park, but that’s what I’m trying to bring out. It’s ordinary and not a one-of-a-kind landscape, but I just really see what’s extraordinary about it.”In the Neighborhood, oil on canvas, 10 x 11"

Woods’ process is also of importance, as it involves her daily journey through her home in the suburbs of Boise, Idaho. She finds inspiration by capturing her scenes from her neighborhood car rides with her camera—moments that trigger her visual instincts like in Highway with Pale Sky, a view captured when Woods and her husband were driving through a heavy rainstorm.

The new collection of work will be on display at George Billis Gallery through February 19, beautifully communicating the extraordinary in the ordinary and offering a fresh perspective on urban scenery. —

George Billis Gallery
2716 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 838-3685 • www.georgebillis.com