Scott Armetta, “10/a 10/b”.

It’s so nice to realize that landscape painting has not died, and that some of the best of it is still, well, old school.

A great case in point: the gorgeous paintings of Scott Armetta hanging in the artist-run GucciVuitton gallery. Walk around Armetta’s world, and be transported into a clearly Florida landscape just before nightfall, or just after the rain, or in the aftermath of a wild fire. The images are blurred, smoldering, soft, delicate like the fragile land around us.

Tradition is here. There are distinct sight lines and horizons – a view from the road or the beach. And the rather small works are amazingly framed, with unique, thrift-shop-found frames, which become integral to the paintings themselves. This is a version of an 18th century salon.

Except that it is contemporary as well. Those frames are scratched and marked and imperfect, not something that would have flown two centuries ago when showcasing an artist’s work. But the paintings too are scratched or marked or smudged, something is not quite right with each interpretation of a natural landscape. Or maybe it would be if you were just awakening, attempting to remove the sleep from your eyes and the recent dreams from your consciousness. On this particular day during the gallery visit, the skies outside unexpectedly opened up and drenched the Little Haiti neighborhood. Outside, the world for a moment reflected the hazy, misty, lovely landscapes depicted back in the gallery. A return to the gallery confines to take in the real and surreal worlds that Armetta so expertly meshes seemed mandatory. Don’t miss this beautiful contrast of the old and the new in artistic aesthetics, and the cocooned atmosphere it creates – with or without a torrential rain storm outside.

Paintings of Scott Armetta run through Nov. 1 at GucciVuitton, 8375 N.E. 2nd Ave., Miami. Open on Saturdays and by appointment, available by emailing [email protected].