"Kevin Broad: New Works," through March 9, Crayola Gallery, Banana Factory, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem, makes an artistic statement for the Nazareth native and Philadelphia-based abstract artist.

Broad is known throughout the East Coast arts community and beyond for his use of color and sweeping brush strokes. Drawn to abstract painting in an effort to make his work less about "things," he resolved to focus more on color.

"In 2011, I made a resolution to work without recognizable forms in my painting. I wanted shapes that I didn't have a familiarity with. I began to study geometry and shapes.

"My work now is so much more about color, the love of technique, and the means of applying paint to a surface. The paintings become more realistic to my life, than say a still life or a portrait. The paintings are meditative studies." says Broad. "Going into abstraction opened up doors, the art becomes about my life as a living loving human being."

Broad's works are bright studies in color, light and brushstrokes, beautiful in their abstraction. For Janice Lipzin, vice president of visual arts at ArtsQuest, the nonprofit that runs the Banana Factory, bringing Broad 's work to the Banana Factory was important. She wanted to show the Lehigh Valley the work of a native who is making contemporary abstract art, to shake up the local public's view of art and expose the audience to different ideas of what art is.

Broad experiments in many ways, making his own pigments and paints, and has worked in pastels and oil. He has shown from Maine to Miami, and has works in private collections nationally and internationally. The show in Bethlehem enables Broad to showcase what he feels to be the most important work of his career.

"I want the viewer to look at this work and gain a new visual experience, not representative of what they know. I see so much more possibility in life as an expressive artist. It purifies my process."

Having grown up in Nazareth and lived in Tatamy, Northampton County, Broad started his process in the Lehigh Valley. He frequently visits friends and family in the area. He believes that the Lehigh Valley is an emerging arts center and that "if new artists knock on doors here, they can find representation, and a career -- a career even beyond the Lehigh Valley. I left the Lehigh Valley not because I was unhappy with the art scene, but for my own personal growth.

"It was very important for me to come back for this show at the Banana Factory and for the public to see what I'm doing now as an artist, and to share."