Dallas artist Mary Vernon’s bold colors, gestures and structures at Valley House Gallery

The first thing apt to strike you in the Mary Vernon show at Valley House Gallery is sheer, often startling, beauty. Bold, brilliant colors fairly leap off the smooth, whiter-than-white polypropylene Yupo sheets the Dallas artist has been using instead of canvas in recent years.

With no surface texture to absorb and soften the oil — Yupo requires no preparatory gesso — the paint’s own tactility intensifies the pinks, purples, blues, greens and yellows. Vernon’s study of color theory informs the combinations, and she acknowledges inspirations from Matisse and Bonnard.

There’s considerable energy in bold slashes, dabs, jitters and occasional drools of paint. Whimsy, too, in some juxtapositions.

Vernon’s name is familiar to generations of Southern Methodist University alums who took her art history and studio art courses. Hired in 1967, straight out of grad school at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Vernon taught at SMU for five decades, chairing the art department for eight years.

I took her Picasso course a “few” years ago and was delighted to meet her again at the gallery. She radiates energy and intelligence, both probing and elucidating as born teachers do.

Aside from years of raising small children, Vernon also painted all along. Since retiring from academe, she’s been particularly active in her Design District studio. The current show of work from the last two years continues a yearslong series at Valley House.

Landscapes, in mostly horizontal formats, predominate, layering earth, vegetation, mountains and skies. Even if you didn’t know Vernon’s New Mexican background — she was born in Roswell — you’re apt to guess Southwestern vistas, although some paintings recall other places on her travels. But don’t expect literal portrayals.

“They’re not usually that documentary,” Vernon says. “They’re about structure, and memory, about the power of recollection.”

She does not paint outdoors. “I hate the wind and the bugs and the heat.”

In Yellow Table, a mountain range looms in the distance as a low zigzag, gray and blue. Below are suggestions of cliffs and a ribbon of forests. The foreground is dabs of yellows, browns, dark greens and reds, with, sure enough, a yellow table — so that’s what it is — upfront. Subtly blue-streaked white patches could represent either leftover rainwater or snow.

In Red Gate, recalling a Santa Fe scene, a low adobe wall and bright red arch supply horizontal counterpoint to the vertical thrusts and leafy explosions of trees. Structure is a prime concern for Vernon, who often dabs in outlines of her works before settling down to paint what we see.

Dogs appear in a number of the paintings, lending a whimsical touch but also providing more tangible reference points. In Still Life with Sourdough Bread, a pink-headed dog stretches a paw onto a table holding an exuberantly textured floral arrangement as well as the bulbous brown loaf.

Other paintings explore dialogues between background illustrations and overlaid schematics.

Vernon’s titles sometimes focus on details we might otherwise miss. Without the Bee at Bee City title, would we notice the little yellow-and-black figure among black-on-white floral outlines and presumably a beehive on the opposite side? Woods with Fallen Head looks like a study in abstraction until our attention is drawn to the sculptured head looking rather alarmed.

In pamphlets for this and previous shows at Valley House, Vernon recounts inspirations and associations behind some of her paintings. Surely there are backstories for many, if not most, of the others. But she leaves us to guess, to imagine for ourselves. And to savor the beauties and energies.

Details

“Mary Vernon: Paintings” is on display through Jan. 6 at Valley House Gallery, 6616 Spring Valley Road, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. 972-239-2441, valleyhouse.com.