The current exhibit at Slayton House Gallery is a summer trip to France that does not require a passport.
Al Biegel's exhibit "Provence Perspectives" features oil paintings and watercolors that celebrate that region's flower-filled fields and rustic architecture.
Several works depicting fields of lavender take full advantage of how these cultivated rows of vivid purple define the landscape. There are occasional trees and buildings, but you only notice them after your eyes have taken in all that purple.
Another color shouting for your attention is red, which makes quite a bright statement in a few works showing poppy fields in bloom. The bursts of color in such flower-filled landscapes are quickly defined by the artist's brush strokes, which makes the resulting works mildly abstracted.
If some of Biegel's works offer panoramic views of rolling farmland, others are more tightly cropped views of life in the villages of Provence. It's apt that these town scenes emphasize the extent to which flowers are a natural part of this paved environment, too.
"Balcony and Shutters," "Blue Shutters and Pots," "Village Window #8" and other works serve as a reminder of what it's like to walk down narrow streets, pause before a window, then focus your attention on the window and what's immediately around it. Flower pots generally are placed so close to the window that the effect is of a natural fusion between inside and outside.
The beautifully faded old houses, the large windows and assertive flowers all blend together quite harmoniously. You get the sense that these contemporary depictions present a rural world that has not changed very much over the centuries.
Other signs of village life also appear in several works. In "Bicycle Near Window," its placement there is a reminder that bicycles seem like an appropriate mode of transportation in a land where people appreciate a slower pace. You won't see cars in the exhibited art; for that matter, "Bicycle Near Window" and the exhibit's many other unpeopled scenes rely on quiet reminders of the human presence.
The result is that you're the only person looking into the opened front door in "Patisserie." Its quaint storefront architecture and in particular its sign for croissants are tasty elements that pull you into the picture.
Lest you think that the unseen residents of these villages only smell flowers and eat pastry, there are at least a few reminders that occasional labor is involved. Of course, it's safe to assume that somebody must grow those flowers and sell those croissants.
Also, a closely cropped view of a white boat hull with the name "St. Tropez" on its side serves to remind you that work, whether actual fishing or fishing for tourist dollars, goes on here.
Al Biegel's "Provence Perspectives" remains through June 13 at Slayton House Gallery, at 10400 Cross Fox Lane, in Wilde Lake Village Green, in Columbia. There is a reception Saturday, June 11, 2- 4 p.m. Call 410-730-3987.