"Warriors in the Clouds," a one woman show featuring Patricia Kaufman, renowned New Hampshire painter opens May 23 at the Bowersock Gallery, 373 Commercial Street in Provincetown Mass and runs through June 17. Those are the basic facts, says gallery owner Steve Bowersock. The more relevant one is this is one of the season's most outstanding exhibitions.

It's rare the gallery can afford to feature a single artist, given its seasonal nature. But when an artist of such import creates such a powerful, new body of work, rules are bent.

"This is a show that I have personally been waiting for. It's two years in the making," says Steve Bowersock, gallery owner. "Months ago when Patricia first showed me what she was working on I know this was going to prove to be an important exhibition of an outstanding artists. When an artist makes a move like this - it's exciting for everyone that's watching her work."

For decades Kaufman was known for her ethereal, impressionistic figurative oils. Then a few years back she moved into abstract-impressionist landscapes and achieved what few artists do when making a major change - a larger audience.

Now she's returned to the figurative and the work is stronger, more alive then ever, says Bowersock. In addition to her oils Kaufman will exhibit collages which she has painted into. Both the collage and oils are inspired by the artist's latest visit to a Peruvian mountain village.

All Kaufman's work is marked by two distinctive threads. Her colors are rich, deep and complex, simultaneously capturing a vibrancy and warmth. Her other signature is the sense of spirit her work conveys. Whether a landscape, figurative or abstract there is always a sense you are looking at the energy, the spirit, of what's being depicted, rather than its physical manifestation.

"This time it is the spirit of this village she visits, notably the dance she studied while there the last time," says Bowersock. "There's such life and excitement to the works - and always the sense you are looking at the life's energy behind what you see."

The oils colors range from deep, contemplative areas to jewel like hues. The canvases seem to be lit by an internal light, he adds. "

The images? Arresting! Vibrant! Moving.

"The collages, which convey the same hand are created with images taken from photos snapped by the artist during her trip and then painted into. "They're just amazing," says Bowersock. "This is the kind of work that gets inside you and demands response. They haunt. Come back to mind weeks later. It's a new, further reaching work of an already outstanding painter."