Wilson’s Watercolors Descriptive and Evocative

In the watercolor world according to Beverly Wilson, any vignette or landscape is ripe for the picturing. Her exhibition at the Buenaventura Gallery this month, “Scenes From Near and Far,” suitably describes a sampling of work that includes the San Buenaventura Mission and travelogue paintings from Europe.

In the best of the paintings here, Wilson uses her solid sense of art-making in scenes descriptive and evocative. A sense of nostalgic, wintry leisure is conveyed through the tiny figures speckling a white expanse in “Skating on the Rideau Canal” or the sprawling city plaza of “Old Town Warsaw.”

Elsewhere, we can’t help but read into her pictures attitudes that may not be intended by the artist. She shows a kind of earnest appreciation, for example, in scenes of the pomp and quasi-European splendor of Hearst Castle, some with dramatic sunsets over pools. Any irony contained in such a symbol of excess among the affluent--and its inevitable link to the Hearst-like mogul in “Citizen Kane”--is supplied by the beholder.

Wilson’s goal seems mainly to capture visual beauty, without apparent subtext. Still, subtext carries considerable weight in an image like the mangled remains of the World Trade Center, now a global shrine imbued with collective anger and anti-terrorist resolve.

Wilson takes a turn toward trompe l’oeil invention with “An Outing for Van Gogh,” with its Van Gogh painting within the painting, and the actual countryside behind the easel.

Another pleasing oddity in the show is “Goose Step at the Kremlin,” with its strange, crouching perspective on the subject of stiff-legged guards on parade. The unorthodox angle points up the general conservatism of her compositional approach in the rest of the show. She has the skills to paint a pretty picture, but it’s the curiosities--the scenes from off the beaten path--that make the show worth looking at.

* Beverly Wilson, “Scenes From Near and Far,” through December at the Buenaventura Gallery, 700 E. Santa Clara St., Ventura. Gallery hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays; (805) 648-1235.

Year’s Turning: The numbers turn and history lurches a baby step forward. The spirits soar, or meander. Let the party begin. And the definition of party being infinitely malleable, there are some cultural alternatives befalling Ventura County this New Year’s Eve.

At the Civic Arts Plaza, the sixth annual “Night in Vienna” will feature “three American tenors,” Chris Feeney, Robin Reed and Steve Plummber. Longtime resident conductor Elmer Ramsey leads the Conejo Pops Orchestra in a program that promises light, frothy fare with the likes of Strauss waltzes, polkas and operatic confections, not to mention dancers and other festive whatnot.

In Oxnard, the Elite Theater Company is using the occasion of New Year’s Eve to present a gala opening of its new production, “L’Chaim.” Martin Horsey wrote and stars in the play, a whimsical tale of the inter-dynamics between a Jewish widower and his son, an Episcopalian priest.

The theater connection continues at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, where holiday festivities, a pre-show dinner and party will revolve around a performance of the comedy “The Mystery of Irma Vep.” Expect bubbly in the house at the party afterward.

* “Night in Vienna,” Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, Monday, 8 p.m. $18 to $50; (805) 449-ARTS.

* “L’Chaim,” Elite Theatre Company, 730 S. B St., Oxnard, Monday, 9 p.m. $35; (805) 483-5118.

* “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley, Monday, 8:30 p.m. $50 for the show and party; $75 for dinner at 6:30, show and party; (805) 581-9940.