A shared sensibility: Two artists' romantic view of the feminine is exhibited at JayJay
By Victoria Dalkey - Bee Art Correspondent

Artists S.R. Jones and Tom Leaver share a romantic sensibility that gives a show of their works at JayJay a coherent feeling. Leaver's moist, misty landscape paintings are subliminal evocations of the feminine that chime nicely with Jones' sensual, mixed-media images of female figures in riparian landscapes.

Jones and Leaver studied art at California State University, Sacramento, in the 1970s and 1980s, and both departed from the funk art and eccentric narratives that dominated Sacramento art at the time.
Jones' altered Polaroids shown at the White Gallery on Del Paso Boulevard were intriguing works, poised between representation and abstraction. His cool, sometimes menacing images of ghostly figures caught in a limbo of gunmetal grays, slate blues and icy whites were both tough and subtle.

Leaver's early works shown at the Judith Weintraub Gallery were rooted in the Bay Area figurative tradition but eventually morphed into painterly abstractions with references to landscape. For the last decade Leaver has focused on romantic landscapes that seem to appear out of the mists of time in earthy tones of green, silver and brown.

Suffused with warm, Rembrandtesque hues, his recent paintings call up associations with the late, soft-focus landscapes of 19th century French painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Like Corot, whose motto was "Be guided by feeling alone," Leaver states that he wants the viewer "to feel something" rather than "just see something." The results are symbolic rather than observed landscapes that, like Rorschach tests, engage the viewer's imagination and unconsciousness.

Leaver's amorphous views of unidentified places where small rills of silvery or golden water lead the eye up to skies of similar color suggest the fecundity of the feminine principle. Framed by the dark foliage of imaginary trees, the heavily luminous sky in "No Discernible Season" reaches down to the earth in the form of a celestial Delta of Venus.

There are slight variations in the works, some leaning more toward green or yellow, others toward pewter or ochre. In addition to large canvases such as "Koan" and "Bearing Similarity," Leaver shows small versions of his larger works. Though they differ slightly, most of Leaver's paintings essentially seem cut from the same mold and suffer a bit from their sameness.

Jones, on the other hand, presents three different bodies of work: figures immersed in aquatic landscapes, exotic nudes overlaid with decorative patterning, and edgy assemblages of found objects and photographs. In contrast to his earlier works, his recent pieces are luxuriously romantic and full of lush color and textures.

Generally using Polaroid photos of figures and landscapes as a base, Jones alters the color and texture of the photos with sandpaper and steel wool before painting and drawing on them. To finish the works, he adds found images and objects to create complex, multilayered works that focus on the sensuality and mystery of the female figure.

In an evocative work enigmatically titled "I'm the Best Thing You've Got Going for You," a haughty woman looks out on a watery landscape like a powerful genie surveying her domain. In "Fleur," a chaste, somnolent nude floats in a dark landscape of lushly patterned foliage that might have graced the wallpaper in an English Arts and Crafts dining room. "Flammable" offers a hot image of a folk art saint with a halo of white flames. Framed against a screaming red handbill, it has the look of a gritty, cutting-edge piece of street art.

In contrast, "Constellation" is a muted, nearly obscured image of a woman who might be a pre-Raphaelite Madonna with a halo of tiny golden blossoms and leaves. Emerging from an atmospheric field of deep red-gold, the figure is a blend of spirituality and eroticism in a work that is unabashedly beautiful. Some of Jones' pieces are a bit over the top, too romantic for their own good, but when he reins in his full-blown lyricism, they are very fine.

Tom Leaver Paintings and S.R. Jones Mixed Media Works
WHEN: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, through Dec. 22
WHERE: JayJay, 5520 Elvas Ave.
ADMISSION: Free
INFORMATION: (916) 453-2999