Wilshire Center

Donal Lumbert’s recent paintings are called “Pedazos del Mondo” (Pieces of the World). They’re big images of the Earth partially covered with Ice Age sheets of milky glassine material that rolls rocky outcroppings in its wake. Resin, earth and sand applied to the canvas create the textures, and color--aqua, rose, periwinkle, yellow--flickers up here and there, sometimes spreading over the entire planet. The single-color backgrounds have the fine gritty plainness of emery boards.

There is a disconcerting slickness to this enterprise, Lumbert’s first venture on canvas with a variant of a technique he formerly applied to aluminum panels. The series works most effectively in a closely hung grouping of four paintings that emphasizes simple color and texture variations on the circle-on-a-ground theme. This arrangement downplays the innocuous attractiveness of each piece that makes a poor substitute for the elemental force one might expect from such a cosmic subject. (Ovsey Gallery, 126 N. La Brea Ave., to June 25.)