Michael Carson’s glamorous scenes, set in bars, clubs, cafés, and dance studios, are marked by a hazy realism reminiscent of French impressionist and post-impressionist works by artists such as Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Carson, who was formally trained in design, brings elements of fashion and architecture into his work, but his foremost commitment is to the art of painting. “I love the ways that a single brushstroke can create such subtleties in facial expression,” he has remarked. “I spend most of my time on the face and hands. They tell the story.”