Debra Barrera visits the studio of painter Jonathan Leach on the occasion of Leach's solo exhibition opening at Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, on February 28, 2013.

Barrera writes: "In Leach’s newest painting, bands of color shift slightly from vermillion to soft fuchsia, with a new subtlety of composition. Sitting atop a small table in the studio are smaller works on graph paper done with colored pens. Oddly sparse, these new pieces are unexpected excursions from the bombastic neon color and flat backgrounds of previous works. Leach’s older paintings were very surface-oriented, akin to looking out of a subway window: light illuminates the brick and mortar whizzing by, with all the visual information right in front of your nose. In this newer work, you start to see into the exoskeleton of Leach’s paintings, entering them in a new and exciting way. Instead of watching the city whiz by, we become explorers into it."