Santa Monica

Arizona artist Jim Waid joins the current rash of landscape-inspired abstraction with florid, colorful skeins of acrylic on canvas. The large-scale works look as if he used half the kitchen utensils to apply thick, wild paint, then used the other half to scrape off huge areas in zigzag, straited patterns. Space is shallow, colors intense; we can read an occasional bit of chocolate tree bark, the linear morphology of cacti and other reed-shaped desert plants. In “Bird Springs,” bright yellow crescents on a gnarled royal blue ground look like those exotic blossoms that succulents send out. These are heartfelt energetic paintings by a seasoned artist, but they lack that element of conceptual or emotional urgency that makes work stay with you beyond the initial viewing. (Shoshana Wayne Gallery, 1454 5th St., to May 4.)