Santa Monica

Intimate landscapes by Virginia-based realist Richard Crozier have a heartfelt connection with nature. Crozier is a throwback to earlier times as he doesn’t seem interested in gut spilling or paint pushing or concerned with the heady ruminations about illusion versus realilty that marks much realism today. He just has a reverence for the land, a keen eye and a schooled hand able to turn observed nature into hazy scenes of evenly focused, delicately fixed detail. Tiny panoramas of his native Virginia, the oceans below Ventura and orange sunrises carving flat, bright shadows on sultry annonymous hills are painted with a refreshing directness you don’t see much any more. (Tatistcheff Gallery, 1547 10th St., to Feb. 18.)