The feeling of twilight? Wanda Koop paintings try to capture the moment

Wanda Koop’s 29 paintings at Night Gallery in downtown Los Angeles are pleasant records of the coloristic shifts that take place just after twilight and just before dawn.

Their pleasures are modest, and so are their shortcomings. If you’re drawn to art that is bland and relaxing, you won’t be disappointed to visit “In Absentia,” the Winnipeg-based painter’s L.A. debut and first solo show in the United States.

Koop’s paintings come in all sizes, from notebook to wall and everything in between. Her palette is equally expansive, running from the gentle blues and pale oranges of clear-sky sunrises to the blazing yellows, pinks and greens of neon signs.

Gray is the painter’s forte. She makes that color something to see: an unexpectedly sensuous combination of charcoal, steel and olive drab or a range of tints so light that it almost seems white, like vanilla ice cream.

Despite the variety of sizes and colors that Koop uses in her acrylics on canvas, there’s a relentlessness to “In Absentia.” The longer you linger, the more it seems as if you’re seeing the same painting again and again.

The overcrowded show also feels as if it’s trying too hard — working, above and beyond, to make sure you don’t miss the point. That overbearing earnestness comes off as mistrust. And that’s antithetical to the good-natured pleasantness of Koop’s art at its best.

Night Gallery, 2276 E. 16th St., L.A. Through Nov. 18; closed Sundays and Mondays. (323) 589-1135, www.nightgallery.ca