Beneath the built-up surface of the Arnaud disguise were the features of Cranston.

Laid down with a palette knife, the paint is strewn with masses of crusty, built-up surfaces that contrast with smooth areas like glistening planes.

His compact square pictures with heavily built-up painterly surfaces - some glossy, some wrinkled - and odd, slightly subdued tints of orange, green and blue are especially satisfying (Johnson).

A large rectangular chunk of white Styrofoam fixed to the wall, its outward-facing surface covered with a layer of mustard-colored fresco, is a cartoon version of a built-up painterly surface.

As you can see by the thickly built-up surfaces, painting for Gorky was not as effortlessly spontaneous as his late works might suggest.

"Next to the Last Supper" is one of Ms. Sharrow's most literal works; the title is scratched onto the heavily built-up surface at the lower left.

As much sculptured as painted, their built-up surfaces can bring to mind the early reliefs of Eva Hesse, also an interesting point of departure.

She has said that all these works are based on photographs, and she imparts substantial effort on the built-up surfaces of the images.

In semi-abstract landscape paintings with heavily built-up surfaces, Ms. Dubasky, who has exhibited in New York for 20 years, layers fanciful plant forms over blurry, patchwork fields.