Recent paintings by Pinkney Herbert, now showing at David Lusk Gallery, feature a new openness and spareness, a sense of controlled lyricism, that were absent from his previous work. Herbert's high-energy paintings were notable for brashness, vivid coloration, swirling, tornado-like forms and swashbuckling vortexes. Now there's a quality that could almost be called contemplative.

Pinkney Herbert's "Delta Series L," (top) a pastel on paper, and "Jig 68," oil on canvas, from his exhibition, "Floating World."

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"I think some of that has to do with my being more mature and moving away from the hyperactive, child-like energy I used to have," the artist said in a telephone interview from North Carolina, where he was visiting family last week.

"I'm more centered. I know the work used to be frenetic and crazy, but I'm thinking more now before I paint. It used to be, put on the music and let it go. I mean, I guess I should be showing signs of maturity since I'm 55."

Herbert has long been a fixture of the local art community, not only because of the wide familiarity with his work but because of his influence as a teacher at the Memphis College of Art and the University of Memphis and because he is owner of the studio and exhibition space Marshall Arts.

He no longer teaches at those institutions, confining himself to two-week workshops, often in Europe, but he admits that the influence of the student-teacher relationship runs both ways.

"Students are often working with materials I'm not familiar with," said Herbert, "especially in the field of computers. And you can be talking to students about their work and you realize that what they're saying reflects back on your own work."

With their two daughters away in college, Herbert and his wife Janice live part of the year in New York, where the city's many great museums and galleries keep them busy looking at new and old artwork.

"We go to museums constantly," Herbert said. "I've gotten particularly interested in Asian art, especially the woodblock prints of the Edo period in Japan (1603-1868). I think maybe the openness, the white space in my work, the serenity, derive from that."

In fact, the title of Herbert's exhibition, "Floating World," is a direct reference to the ukiyo-e artistic genre of the late Edo period -- "pictures of the floating world."

Herbert described 55 as being "a good place now for my life and my art. Still, he said, "there's a part of me that doesn't want to grow up."

"Floating World" by Pinkney Herbert and Alan Duckworth's "Amplified Mind"

Opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at David Lusk Gallery, 4540 Poplar Ave. in Laurelwood. Exhibits run through Aug. 1. Call 767-3800 or visit davidluskgallery.com.