Carol Lefkowitz explores the delicate balance between structure and chaos in this series of large abstract paintings. Working with a specific palette derived from sky, sun, and leaves, she paints in thin layers of oil, creating fields of color that start out as studies of reflections in water and quickly become monumental structures of their own. The gridded patterns that underlay each composition give the works an architectural base but one that has a progressive sense, like stairways or ladders that move the viewer upward towards the heavens. This upward thrust and sense of infinite depth is counterbalanced by the pull of paint dripping down the surface in a wash that shows the artist letting go, allowing expression, accident, and movement in. But the paint and its movement ultimately stops, frozen in time and space, which returns the viewer to the present moment and to the literal and material basis of both painting and human existence.Carol Lefkowitz holds an MFA from the California College of Arts and currently teaches painting at College of Marin. She exhibits regularly at Robert Allen Fine Art, Sausalito; the SFMOMA Artist's Gallery; SAM Gallery, Seattle; and SLATE contemporary gallery, Oakland. Her work is in numerous private and corporate collections including those of Adobe, Deutsche Bank, Sprint, Safeway, Kaiser Permanente, Ernst & Young, and Prudential, among many others.