ARTIST

Spiritual and soaring, the work of William DeBilzan captures the natural optimism of sunlight. His canvases are peopled with slender, abstract figures in the gentle attitudes of daily life, and his landscapes ring with color.

Drawing on the same eclectic influences the San Francisco Expressionists did during the optimistic decades after the second World War, DeBilzan produces evocative abstractions of places that all suggest "home" - whether it be the palms of Florida, the golden light of California, or the crisp lines of New Mexico.

These landscapes reflect DeBilzan's own sense of place, and his mobility as an artist. Centered in Santa Fe, he travels between his studio there and others in Florida and California. But his carefree and intelligent compositions strike a careful balance of ambiguities. Detached enough from specific detail, they can express a kind of Everyman sensibility; but they also include subtle suggestions of light and color, emotive enough to summon memory of time and place in the viewer. They radiate joy, even if it is sometimes the more tempered joy of solitude.

The figures in DeBilzan's world often stand in a sea of color - saturated reds, blues, or greens. Their elongated bodies and simple dress places the emphasis on their gestures. They may be in love, waiting patiently, or posing as if for a photograph. His use of black outline, both in figures and in landscape, adds to such careful expression, emboldens it, and at the same time highlights the bright primary and secondary palette of this shadow less world. They are droll and sophisticated.

They are products of Debilzan's approach to his own spontaneous creativity. The rows of houses and trees on streets may stand over letters or symbols, adding to the sense of expressionist influences in the composition, but with an undeniable individuality. The use of found objects integrated into the canvases - bits of paper and metal, whatever inspires - add layers of complexity and the sense of openness that permeates all of DeBilzan's work.

DeBilzan's abstract compositions spill over into his sculptures, where brightly-clothed figures in metal appear to have stepped off his canvases. They may seem melancholy, or full of life, depending upon small differences in the tilt of a head or the arrangement of an arm.

The bold appeal in William DeBilzan's work has led to an international audience through appearances in both film and television. Spin City, Frasier, Just Shoot Me, and L.A. Doctors have all featured his paintings, as well as the film The Body Snatchers Two . The individuality and strong composition communicate well through screens both large and small.

Even the frames are carefully hand-selected by DeBilzan, constructed from antique wood collected from around the world. Frames or pedestals may still show a hinge or a joint from their former life, adding to the texture and warmth of the work.

And experimental textures abound. Starting with a wash, DeBilzan builds his surfaces in a way that may produce a luminous glaze in one area of the canvas and thick, highly-textured impasto layers in another - a range of textures and effects with light, all on the same canvas.

This confident use of paint comes from years of self-taught study, truthful observation of the world, and a willingness to stand before an empty canvas and be inspired by the moment, to allow the paint to speak through him, and through the paint, William DeBilzan speaks to the viewer.