Fredrick Nelson: Gardens of Abbeville

Local painter Fredrick Nelson's paintings have a mutable quality that give them an interesting depth. He builds strangely familiar forms out of wobbly whorls of color and line that, from a distance, assume the aspect of people and animals. When you approach them more closely, you appreciate how you were tricked by his clever use of color and structure. For his new show, The Gardens of Abbeville, he applies those same skill to his paintings of garden scenes. Tendrils of leafy vines are studded with barely-there blossoms -- and then you back away and see those familiar shapes as abstract images. The Gardens of Abbeville opens with a free reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, November 20.