Frank Owen says his "Venetian" paintings are the visual equivalent of the "pleasure principle; the extravagant deployment" of all the things he knows how to do in paint. Like all abstract paintings rooted either in cosmology or landscape, these paintings are somewhat referential. One thinks of constellations whirling through space as the artist's orbs whirl through a field of multi color. As Owen says of these works: "this series makes me think about what painting is, what it can be, and what it can do." These are extreme physical statements in paint, over the top, intense works that are harnessed in space by the rigors of the artist's intellect and the structure he gives to each work. While many abstract paintings are more predictable in their construction, Owen's works are the opposite. They have an optical tactility, with a glass smooth surface. The physicality of paint is behind the surface due to Owen's unique approach to building a skin of many layers of paint in verso; the first layer is, in fact, the top or surface layer of the finished painting; the final coat is the layer that touches the canvas.