Painting by Mark Westervelt: Untitled, Unframed

Somebody is playing something. The stars, the zigzags and the dots all seem to have heard.

This untitled painting on paper is by Mark Westervelt, worked in oil and paint and offered unframed. Working on paper lets an artist layer stains, drawing and small painted patches on one surface, and many contemporary painters treat the sheet itself as part of the picture. A thin pencil line draws a standing nude holding a round instrument, with a heavier painted face and a ladder-like arm raised high. Rust stains, a red dotted trail and tiny symbols, a star, a cross, a zigzag, drift across the cream sheet. It is 5 inches wide and 7 high.

A small sheet with a great deal of conversation on it.