If you want color and irrational exuberance, take a trip north to Santa Barbara for Erik ReeL's show at the Delphine Gallery. While color has always been a central element in ReeL's painting, the new work is richer and more clearly about color than ever. Deep burnt oranges and purples and, yes, even pastels, now grace his palette.

The work for the most part is uplifting and joyful in mood. One new develpment is  the appearance of larger, abstract landscapes full of palms and hints of buildings. Each is a bright oasis from our normal, torn, urban realities. These landscapes are a pleasant, more contemporary, diversion from teh endless hoards of duller-colored "California Landscapes" that crowd every art fair in sight.

One piece seems to hit a different tone: title Let's Kill Each Other Off for God, it features a large flower pot ful of "flowers" in the shape of symbols used by the world's major religions. But its playful color and handling of paint suggest a lighter tone than the title. Then it hits you: ReeL is being ironic here. All the flowers are coming out of the same pot: the religions spring from a similar, transcendent experience. It is absurd that we even think of killing another in the name of God. But alas, we humans, do kill each other off in the name of religion. ReeL is gently reminding us that it is this tragedy that has to change.

So make the trip; this show is more than worth it.