By MiChelle Jones . FOR THE TENNESSEAN . May 16, 2010

A week after the flood and one week before the opening of her latest exhibition, Shelley Liles McBurney wasn't sure when power would be restored to Gallery One in Belle Meade.

Nevertheless, she decided the opening of her latest show, new acrylic on canvas paintings by Jeff Faust, would go on as scheduled - even if by flashlight.

Faust's paintings were still en route from his Sausalito, Calif., studio during the flood; the artist was looking forward to following the paintings in time for last Friday's opening.

"I always wanted the art to be a contribution," he says. "If I can slap up a few paintings and that's a contribution to a return to normalcy or whatever, it's great to be a part of that."

The concept of life changing in a moment is something Faust confronts again and again in his work.

"A lot of my paintings deal with the fragility of life," he says. "It seems to me that in just the wink of an eye, things can change so dramatically."

He represents this through a vocabulary of images he's developed over the years. Birds' nests balanced precariously on sticks in Our Delicate Lives I and II, or on a rope in The Small Opera represent the delicate balance between life and death, normalcy and disaster.

"A lot of my art deals with balance," Faust says. "I don't like things to be lopsided . . . I don't want to put everything on one side of a painting; I wouldn't be able to walk upright," Faust laughs.

Even in paintings with lots of elements - leaves, feathers and clouds are also among Faust's set of symbols - he strives for a balanced composition.

Faust describes his style as "subtle surrealism," inspired by the colors and shapes of Joan Miró, the absurdity of René Magritte, the fluidity of Salvador Dali.

In Lemons and the Sea, for example, a seabird morphs (from right to left) into a boat, its feathers turning into curved wood shavings, then into a lemon tree. All of this sits on a sphere half-submerged in water with low-lying clouds drifting by.

Juxtapositions like these are often paired with exquisitely rendered classical elements such as urns, pedestals, orbs and alcoves.

"I've always been enthralled with the classical masters, the Renaissance painters, the ability to say something in such a clear and precise style," Faust says. "I love the craft of painting, of rendering realistically."

But always with a twist. Take Waiting for Scotland, which depicts a bright white cow sitting in a field, anchoring a rowboat overhead as it ferries a vapory cloud.

"What, you don't get the connection?" Faust quips when asked about this and other titles.

This painting originated during a trip to Scotland with his wife last summer.

"As soon as I saw the cow, I saw the image," he says. The cloud came later.

"Waiting for Scotland just seemed appropriate to me because Jan and I are always waiting to go back to Scotland."

"Jeff has his own way of seeing the world," McBurney says. "His view is interpreted in paintings that have a certain quiet softness. They can be alternately whimsical or serious, but never boring."