In Gary McMillan’s “Galapagos” series, the painter guides us into alien ecosystems, inviting viewers along as explorers to make any observations they can from the creatures and activity there. The work is rooted in the artist’s interest in both science and art. And McMillan says he is “interested in how one makes sense of new things through remembered experience of the familiar.”
“In this series of paintings, I am acting as a gentleman explorer, looking for new places to observe in order to think about things in a different way,” the artist says. “I like to think of the viewer as an explorer also, perhaps on a group expedition into these places of mine, where there are natural forms and situations that are unfamiliar. The color of everything around is strange but beautiful and the way all of these natural forms fit into a local ecology is a mystery, even to the scientists in the group.”
See more works from this series below.
Recent creatures crafted in the workshop of 
Swiss artist 
Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman's "Heavy Water" brings new paintings from the surrealist to La Luz de Jesus Gallery, inspired by the substance created from tap water for nuclear energy research in the 1930s. Using oil and egg tempera on aluminum panel, the artist’s works have a particular glow, implementing centuries-old techniques for the effect. The show runs Oct. 4-27 at the space.