On the surface, Eileen Goodman’s flowers and fruits have little in common with Scott Noel’s nudes. Yet both artists unabashedly celebrate the sensuous.

Eileen Goodman: “New Works”; Scott Noel: “New Pastels.” Through January 27, 2010 at Gross McCleaf Gallery, 127 South 16th St. (215) 665-8138 or www.grossmccleaf.com.

Celebrating the sensuous

On the surface, these two shows appearing under the same roof would appear to have little in common. Eileen Goodman is exhibiting watercolors of flowers and fruit. Scott Noel is exhibiting a single oil and 12 pastels, all of them figure studies. Yet both artists unabashedly celebrate the sensuous.

The vibrant flesh of Noel’s models serves as a warmup to the visual splendors Goodman draws forth from the vegetable kingdom. Her Cut Pomegranates is probably the show’s most visually arresting piece, though Vases with Apple and Lemon Branches and the wall-sized Hibiscus offer it some strong competition.

Much is made of art that originates in the brain, but there’s something to be said for the art that originates in the eye. Yes, art can deconstruct the world around us, but it can also grab us by our lapels and shout, “Look! See!” Goodman, with her floral pieces, and Noel, with his very down-to-earth nudes, each do this, albeit in different ways. They’re saying: Look and see the world around you and, in seeing, understand the nature of created things.