Feelings and Images : ‘Expressions of the Heart’ presents the emotionally inspired works of four women at the New Canyon Gallery.

One can appreciate art without any explanation of its source or significance, but artists almost always have at least one story behind their work that could enhance a viewer’s enjoyment and understanding of it.

This notion is especially true of the four women who have brought their art together in the exhibit “Expressions of the Heart” at New Canyon Gallery in Topanga. Their inspirations and their stories are for the most part different. Yet the 60 works collectively reflect their shared belief that art is an expression of strong feelings.

Judy Walker is “trying to get into very deep levels of the mind” with her watercolors, she said, “to express emotions that might not be so pleasant.”

Among her works are three abstract self-portraits, one of a figure that conveys painful sensations as it seems to be opening up, screaming, splitting in two. The non-representational “Barriers” keeps one out with its dark tones and weightiness. The less dense “Horizon” suggests a lighter, more hopeful sense of being. Her “Love Figures” are pulled toward one another with a magnetic energy.

Walker’s watercolors are “visual expressions of very sensitive states of being that arise from autism,” she said. “I think a lot of autism has to do with hyper-sensitivity, hyper-awareness.

“If I am to accept my full range of emotions, you cut yourself open to undo the blocks. To get through the inertia, you have to cut through to the bone. With the release of feeling, you move to a peaceful place with great depth.”

Denise Barr’s “Shrine to Guadalupe” holds her handmade jewelry, including crosses and bleeding hearts made of sterling silver, brass and copper with beveled stones. A few pieces sport pictures of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; many others present images of that country’s patron saints.

Barr sees the cross and the heart symbols not specifically as religious expressions, but as symbols of the Mexican people and culture--to which she feels a strong tie--and the Mexican people’s faith in themselves despite poverty and oppression.

“They take sanctuary in this object, and it helps them,” she said. “I like that a lot of (the saints) are women and that they are powerful, that they are caretakers. What they invest in her is what makes it so fabulous.

“The symbols I use have a lot of power on their own. Nobody looks at a cross and doesn’t have a feeling about something.”

On a more playful note, some of the pieces present lyrics from popular songs of the past, such as “Stop in the name of love,” “Help me, I think I’m falling in love again” and “When you wish upon a star.”

Barr sees her artistic work and that of her show colleagues “as expressions of faith and hope that things can be better for a few more people, animals and other living things,” she said.

Six years ago, Barr and Linda Bolhuis started painting with dyes on white silk to make scarves. Bolhuis has continued to paint on silk, but besides making scarves, she also frames and hangs her images. Often, these paintings reflect her concern for endangered species.

Two images here illustrate Topanga’s beauty, but most of the others were inspired by a trip to Costa Rica in January.

The jewel-like colors and luminous quality of dyes on silk contribute an unusually rich texture to the scarlet macaws and the lavender and yellow flowers of the painting, “Laundry Day in Escazu.” They help convey an otherworldliness to the bulls of “The Ranch.”

Bolhuis’ bird, fish and iguana paintings are complemented by Jenny Stokes’ animal images on her pottery, which is “never symmetrical,” she said. “I leave a lot of the bumps and joins to add more life, and to ensure the unique quality of each pot.”

Born and raised in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and of British background, she studied painting there. After coming to the United States, she became fascinated with American Indian pottery techniques, which she uses in her work today. Only recently has she begun to apply the painting skills she learned in Sri Lanka to her pots.

Her earthy, variously shaped jars and bottles in the gallery, featuring exotic, colorful animal images, are “a remembrance of growing up in the East,” she said.

Where and When What: “Expressions of the Heart.”

Location: New Canyon Gallery, 129 S. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga.

Hours: Noon to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, or by appointment. Ends June 19.

Call: (310) 455-3923 or 455-1689.