Altoon Sultan blogs about John Zurier: West of the Future at Peter Blum Gallery, New York, on view through April 4 2015.

Sultan writes: "This has rarely happened to me, but when I saw John Zurier's show 'West of the Future', currently at Peter Blum Gallery, my awed reaction wasn't just 'I love these paintings', but 'I want to make these paintings'. Their quiet attentiveness, simplicity, attention to surface and materials, their qualities of light and mood, led to a physical longing on my part: a longing to feel the paint, whether distemper (glue size and pigment) or oil; to make the marks; a longing to mix the colors and spread them on fine or coarse canvas. In Hearadsdalur 3, the blue ground is a translucent dark, as of a luminous evening. Each line, each small mark of white, although looking casual, feels carefully considered, and very alive."