Layers of color and imagery meld into an energetic vibe in Doug Gimbel's exhibition “Yellow,” now on display at Alison Evans Ceramics in Boothbay Harbor.

Gimbel’s series, “Yellow,” focuses on his 4.5 years with HDRnB as the band's lead vocalist and songwriter and his ongoing fascination with the scale of time.

To create the paintings in this series of work, Gimbel alternates layers of paint and epoxy, a technique he has favored for nine years.

“Applying epoxy creates enough physical space between one layer of paint and the next so I am able to do the thing I've always wanted to do,” Gimbel said.

Each layer within a painting is created in a different way.

Initially, he draws linear pencil marks and applies small brush marks. Later, Gimbel scratches into the epoxy, fills the scratch marks with paint and wipes off what is on the surface. It' a complex process of layering with carving tools, paint brushes of various size, acrylic paints, epoxy and, in some cases, adding crushed gemstones into the paint.

Gimbel began working in acrylics one year ago after decades of being an oil painter. Acrylics require far less drying time, which is a real plus for an artist interested in creating dimension and space through the layered application of epoxy and paint.

His choice of epoxy also led him to his new color palette.

“Epoxy has a little bit of an amber tone to it. Yellow has everything to do with the nature of the materials,” Gimbel said. “Instead of fighting the nature of the materials, I wanted to work with it to maximize the effect.

“I started the series with a palette of various yellows and the glazing techniques used in acrylics and epoxy.”

The effect is mesmerizing.

Amber (the fossilized tree resin) comes to mind when looking at the work in this show. Often in pieces of amber one finds an insect, a life form/energy, encapsulated for all time. Gimbel's subjects are enveloped in amber, but unlike in the fossilized resin, their energy was not stilled; it appeared to be emanating from the rounded edges of its frame.

For example, in the painting entitled “Holding it Down,” two musicians are depicted as skeletons, one on drums, the other holding a stand up bass. The energy of the drum kit and cymbals meshing with that of the bass, through brush strokes that seem to resemble, to this writer, the pagan symbol of rebirth.

“HD,” a painting of Henley Douglas, who Gimbel describes as an improvisational genius, is a close up rendering of HDRnB's extraordinary sax player. The musical energy being produced by the man and his instrument comes alive in the form of staccato brush strokes moving out from his face to the edges of the work.

In “Rocket,” the sound energy swirling around the musician appears to be moving so fast you just may find yourself thinking he's just going to dissolve into space or break through the confines of the painting.

“When musicians make music, there's a timelessness that happens,” Gimbel said. “There's an energy that is put out into the world. The combined energy of the musician and the music, and the musician and the audience expands out into the universe, and I believe, connects with other energy out into the future.”

Most of the paintings are miniatures, comparable in size to a tablet or cell phone. Their size, and the use of epoxy in their creation, connects the work to this moment in time.

“There's a familiarity in size and weight. Epoxy is used in the boatbuilding and in the digital universe. I'm using the same materials that are cutting edge in other industries,” Gimbel said. “I'm storytelling in the present tense — the past is just a story, the future is conjecture, now is the only moment that exists; these paintings make a commentary on this moment which is soon to become the past.”

The largest painting in the show, 32” x 42”, is entitled, “Sowing the Seeds of Creation.” The woman looking out at this viewer is strong, vibrant, confidant; her third eye open wide, she is connected to the universe. She is wise woman, teacher, nurturer, mother, healer — she is divine.

The energy of the universe pulses through her and from her. Gimbel's use of gemstones in the paint, particularly in this painting, is wonderfully symbolic of this universal energy.

This painting alone could have been the beginning and end of this exhibition. It is spellbinding.

Doug Gimbel's distinctive and original art hasn't been exhibited in Boothbay Harbor since 2002 when he closed his boutique/gallery Indigo, formerly Fishbone's Studio on Pier 1.

Don't miss the opportunity to experience “Yellow” for yourself. The exhibition continues at Alison Evans Ceramics, located at 93 Townsend Ave., thorough August.

Gimbel is one of the featured 30 artists in Studio 53's Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) exhibition in September.