Diverging Roads to Beauty : Unblemished landscapes as well as those altered by L.A.’s concrete freeways reflect the views of two generations of painters.

Throughout the 20th Century, the natural California landscape has moved untold numbers of artists to commit paint to canvas to render the state’s alluring mountains, deserts and seashores.

In the ‘90s, there are still locations untouched by urban and suburban development for artists to take pleasure in and illustrate. But some artists are more open to finding beauty in landscapes where humans have intervened with nature.

“California Vistas,” a show of 28 oil paintings by four Southern California artists at Century Gallery in Sylmar, presents images of unblemished landscapes and those that have been altered by the concrete freeways that so define the Los Angeles region. Interestingly, the two artists who paint nature within the urban environment are men of the Baby Boom generation. The two who prefer to depict pristine sites are women who have a few more years behind them.

“I was intrigued by these generational differences,” said gallery director Lee Musgrave. “The discussion at the opening reception centered around perhaps [that] your focus changes as you get older. As Constance [von Briesen] got older, nature came in [to her paintings] stronger and stronger.”

Von Briesen’s Santa Monica mountains and Malibu coastline images and Martha Saudek’s desert, canyon and garden views are not imaginary landscapes. “The two women search for beauty hiking in the mountains. They try to find places that haven’t been altered, places from their youth,” Musgrave said. “They find them uplifting, inspiring, rejuvenating, and they want to capture those feelings in their paintings. The two men search for beauty driving to and from work.”

Stephen Olson’s series of paintings portray the sweeping curves of freeway overpasses and the pockets of natural growth around them.

“Stephen talks about the beauty of the color and shadows underneath the freeway,” Musgrave said.

To Musgrave, Olson is “much more occupied with the dynamics of those forms than their encroachment in nature.”

Several of Ray Harris’ warm, earthy, pastoral views of the environment by the freeways near Griffith Park include the concrete L.A. River bed and some bridges that cross it. They suggest that despite modern intrusions, these local landscapes still offer at least this artist a real connection to nature.

The question is, Musgrave said, “Will Stephen and Ray eliminate urban references and paint pure landscapes when they get older?”

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It is the landscape of the female form that sculptor Tanya Ragir explores in her solo exhibit at Burbank’s Creative Arts Center Gallery.

Realistic, full-form bronzes lounge by more daring abstract works--circular pieces that encompass part of a figure, and totem and grid sculptures. Although the lines and curves of each piece in these works are minimal and, at times, basically geometric, they are simultaneously recognizable as images of a portion of the female form.

Made of such materials as resin, aluminum, wood and sand, Ragir’s sculptures revel in the beauty and sensuality of those womanly curves.

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Landscapes of a more traditional kind abound in the Valley Watercolor Society’s juried exhibit, “Awakenings,” at Artspace Gallery in Woodland Hills. Among the 75 watercolors, one can roam from Provence to Echo Park, Tahiti to Pebble Beach. There are also portraits, still-lifes, lush visions of flowers and examples of more unusual uses of the watercolor medium.

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WHERE AND WHEN

What: “California Vistas.”

Location: Century Gallery, 13000 Sayre St., Sylmar.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. Ends May 26.

Call: (818) 362-3220.

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What: “Tanya Ragir: Solo Exhibition.”

Location: Creative Arts Center Gallery, 1100 W. Clark Ave., Burbank.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. Ends May 25.

Call: (818) 953-8763.

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What: “Awakenings,” a juried watercolor exhibit presented by the Valley Watercolor Society.

Location: Artspace Gallery, 21800 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills.

Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. Ends May 26.

Call: (818) 716-2786.