Paul Behnke photo blogs a visit to the studio of painter Gili Levy.

Behnke notes that Levy's "mostly, large oil paintings have their origins in figuration and immediately convey the intimacy and depth of feeling she has for her subjects. But Levy is a painter first, and it's easy for the viewer to come ungrounded and caught up in the quality of paint handling, the endless variety of application and the struggle between color and form that are made all the more interesting by quirky line quality (beginning and ending abruptly) and sophisticated, unexpected, color placements and combinations. Levy's work is resplendent, and gritty as the figurative and the abstracted vie for attention and end up equals comprising a transcendent whole."