“FLAMINGOES’’: Paintings and drawings by Charles David Viera are featured in “Same Thing Only Different,” on view October 2 to October 31 at the New Hope Arts Center A-Space Gallery in New Hope, Pa. An opening reception is October 2 from 3 to 6 p.m.

The New Hope Arts Center  A-Space Gallery will present an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by artist Charles David Viera, “Same Thing Only Different,” October 2  through October 31.

An opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 2 from 3 to 6 p.m., and a gallery talk is scheduled for Saturday, October 31 from noon to 1 p.m.

This is the second one-person exhibition at the A-Space for Viera. In this exhibition, animal images move across the paintings, figures engage in haunting psychological scenarios, while line and color interact in an abstract world on other canvases all from the same artist’s hand.

Viera said, “My letter of rejection from Yale University’s master’s program in the ’70s stated ‘lack of direction’ as a reason for that rejection. This bothered and frustrated me for years as I struggled to create hundreds of works that were noticeably similar to prove some sort of creative maturity that those paintings would represent, only to settle in on 20 or so works and then lose interest. This approach was stifling for me as one who loves the variety of artists and painting styles and the many things an artist can do on a two-dimensional surface I was well into my fifties before I stopped trying to harness my talents to that idea and started painting what I wanted, when I wanted, and how I wanted and that is when the creative output exploded.

“There are really only a few basic rules of color and composition that work for most stylistic trends in painting and this exhibition is a series of varied examples of those rules, hence the title ‘Same Thing Only Different.’

Viera’s artwork has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, the Nassau County Museum, and locally at the Ellarslie Museum in Trenton among others, and he has taught at the Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute in New York City, and is currently a longtime instructor at the Arts Council of Princeton.

New Hope Arts Center is located at 2 Stockton Avenue in New Hope, Pa. Gallery hours are Friday 1 to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. For more information, call (215) 862-9606 or visit newhopearts.org.