Hamlin and Armstrong at Gross McCleaf

Louise E. Hamlin's new show is a tightly organized series of large pastel paintings showing the same geographical area throughout the year. As a group, they admirably convey the aliveness of nature. Leaves open and fall, leaving bare branches to cast purple shadows against the white snow.

In Spring Rush, Summer and Autumn Mascoma, creek waters rush headlong, while in Snow Banks and Motorcycle Shop and Freezing Over, they congeal. The latter piece is probably my personal favorite. It's like a John Twachtman landscape by way of Modernism and presents an image of a perfect, self-contained world.

Martha Armstrong also paints nature scenes, but her technique is entirely different. In this show, she seems to lean toward abstraction, especially in some of her smaller pieces, like First Mock Orange and Apple and Maple.

In her larger pieces (Two Trees I, Two Trees II, Evening Flame), Armstrong still maintains a tenuous balance between visual reportage and imaginative stylization. This tension has always made viewing her work a bracing experience.