In the Galleries – Liquid Terrain: Works on Paper by Eva Lundsager CLOSES August 18 at the Sheldon

A chronicle of dots, washes, saturated color fields and explosive fissures of ink, this survey of St. Louis-based painter Eva Lundsager's abstracts on paper has the feel of an opened diary, each piece an impressionistic recounting of life's varied currents. By and large intimate in scale, the works are presented here in small groups, topically linked by media (water color, gouache, ink) and date, but more revealingly by form and content, an intricate grammar of subtle, intuitive marks that evolves over time. Early pieces convey a jagged, pointillist universe characterized by violent splatters, swarms of pin-like dots and an effusiveness that's heedless of orientational niceties like perspective. More recent works wax into languid brushstrokes, bold hues and a watery environment in which the ground often gives way to volcanic emissions and an absent sun is always setting or rising in shades of red. Lundsager is best known for her works on canvas, which makes this exhibit all the more illuminating, a testament to the preciousness of privacy and unhindered experimentation. Like a journal, it conveys a true sense of lived time — sputters of joy, interstices of black, journeys undertaken and completed — as well as a glimpse of a rich and active interior life, most at home in the fluidity of paint. Through August 18 at the Sheldon Art Galleries, 3648 Washington Boulevard; 314-533-9900 or www.sheldonconcerthall.org. Hours: noon-8 p.m. Tue. & Thu., noon-5 p.m. Wed. & Fri., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat.