La Cienega Area

Not so much a viewer’s show as a collector’s, a gaggle of impressionist and post-impressionist drawings at the Meckler Gallery offers a prize study or two, but most of the work is in the “all we could find” category.

Truly good drawings and wash studies by the likes of Pissarro, Signac, Renoir and Vuillard are hard to come by outside of museums, nevertheless, a couple of pieces in this exhibit are quite worth the visit.

A Bonnard pencil study for his well-known lithograph, “The Bather,” is full of energy and sure execution. It is the work of an artist at the height of his powers. There are some lovely Vuillard studies and several rather academic early Cezanne drawings.

But the works that make the show are several watercolor studies by Camille Pissarro. One in particular, an evening scene of a country lane lined with trees realized in transparent washes of rose and ochre, captures brilliantly the atmosphere of the moment. It’s one of those sparks of genius that transport the viewer to the artist’s time. Immediacy of execution endures to prove that, in art, the clock need be no barrier at all. (Mekler Gallery, 651 N. La Cienega Blvd. to Jan. 15.)