THE VALLEY

Generically titled “Memories of Youth,” Michael Hughes’ current paintings consist of black and white reminiscences of his experiences in Vietnam. These are flat, somewhat inert renditions of hovering helicopters, assault missions, the American military presence amid faceless local villagers, and the camaraderie of camp life. Hughes is better known as a photographer than a painter, and this is probably no accident because his sense of framing and composition is far superior to his facility with the paintbrush. While formally at least the work exudes some of the documentary immediacy of photojournalism, its lifeless, sketchy quality as painting provides us with little of the emotional and conceptual resonance that Hughes is clearly trying to communicate.

In contrast, Bonese Collins Turner’s watercolors are all technique and no content. Collectively titled “Myths, Legends, Dramatis Personae,” the works depict theatrical and mythical characters as ghostly specters, ephemeral and watery presences that seem on the verge of disappearing into the ether. While Turner handles the dramatic properties of color and light to interesting effect, such unquestioning mythologizing of the stage and its history merely comes across as trite cliche after the more significant contributions of Picasso and Cocteau. (Orlando Gallery, 14553 Ventura Blvd., to Oct. 31.)