Toward the end of his career, 19th century English painter J.M. William Turner was turning out canvasses of landscapes and seascapes that sometimes verged on the utterly abstract. Yet, at the same time, one could recognize the landscape that he had summed up with his broad brush strokes. J.M.W. Turner reveled in color and the tactile nature of his oils.

Tacoma has its own painter by the name of William Turner. At the University of Washington Turner studied with Jacob Lawrence and his works have been shown in the Tacoma Art Museum as well as galleries in New York and around the Northwest. Like the English painter with whom he shares a name (by coincidence only), Tacoma’s Turner delights in brilliant color and gestural brushwork that makes his every canvas a display of lively energy. While many of his works are formally abstract, the “Valley Series” - currently on display at Tacoma Public Library’s Handforth Gallery - are based in the landscape tradition. The Handforth show is titled “Intimate Landscapes.”

Inspired by jazz, which Turner often listens to in the studio, these recent works (18 in all) are compositions of musical color and form. His greens range from raw, dark-emerald tones to chalky yellow-green. There are buttery yellows, sunny orange tones, and a cavalcade of sumptuous reds. The canvasses are broken into rectangular areas representing farmlands that are interspersed by clumps of green, blue or purple trees. Horizontal bands blaze away into the distance. Brooding, shadowy hues inhabit a lower corner here and there. Often a serpentine blue strand of river will course its way through the scene.

In “Canyon” the river cuts through the colors of the landscape like a bolt of blue lightning. In “Red Cliffs” a beautiful pale blue is sandwiched between orange masses to form a tinsel-bright accent in one quadrant of the scene.

Stylistically the works in the Valley Series range from the nearly abstract to more literal or traditional landscape scenes. “Southwest,” for example, is an abstract patchwork of bright rectangles and thick colors while “Spring” is a more conventional landscape.

Rectangular fields are viewed beyond the dark blue and purple trees in the foreground. There is a flowing river and distant red hills. All is spread forth in brilliant hues.

“Red Tree (More Blue),” which greets viewers into the gallery space, features a wonderful orange tree that is outlined in thick blue line in the manner of Vincent Van Gogh. A light blue river flows through a land of chalky colors and rolling yellow hills are in the background.

Turner’s inspiration for the “Valley Series” was his daily commute between Seattle and Tacoma, which took him past the Kent Valley. The passage along Interstate 5 offers commuters an aerial view of the Kent Valley and Turner was fascinated by the visual pattern of farmland interspersed with urban encroachment.

A number of canvasses reflect this experience of looking down on the landscape from on high. While the Kent Valley and the Skagit flats are referenced in the show, much of the work is also inspired by CentralValley in California.

Turner’s “Valley Series” is a feast for the eye - a delight to behold. The “Valley Series is on display through April 11 at the Handforth Gallery within the main branch of the Tacoma Public Library at 1102 Tacoma Ave. S.

For further information visit www.tacomapubliclibrary.org, www.williamturnerart.com or call (253) 591-5666.