Three women at a café engrossed in intimate conversation. A female figure draped in a patterned skirt lounging on a chair. A melancholy lady alone at tea.

These are snapshots of life as seen through the eyes of Itzchak Tarkay. More than 130 of the Israeli artist's new and classic paintings, serigraphs and watercolors are on display at Park West Gallery in Southfield through March 4.

Tarkay's works celebrate the beauty and intimacy of woman and are noted for their vivid use of color. His subjects, dressed in shades of red, yellow, blue, violet and green, sit or recline against boldly colored backgrounds.

"I use acrylic paints because the pigments are very strong," explained Tarkay, who recently was in town to open his show at Park West.

As to why one painting is boldly red and another vividly yellow, Tarkay responded, "There is no answer. I do not think about what color I am putting down. It is just coming." .

Over the years, Tarkay, born in 1935 in Subotica on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border and a survivor of the Nathausen concentration camp, has developed a signature style. While some of his creations feature landscapes or Israeli street and port scenes, most works capture 1920s-style women, with red lips and heavily-shadowed eyes, beautiful and sensual but not overtly sexual.

Through the use of glaxing, which involves the layering of acrylic paints to create texture and transparency, Tarkay gives his pieces a tapestry-like appearance. His backgrounds often are as fully developed as his figures, with layers of color adding depth and richness to such details as the fabric patterns of chairs and the blooms of bouquets.

Often, Tarkay uses live models, especially for his nudes. But a favorite activity i8s to sit at a café, watching the women around him, making sketches or photographs to take back to his studio.

The influence of French Impressionism, especially the paintings of Matisse and the drawing style of Toulouse-Lautrec, is evident in all of Tarkay's art. However, he credits three of his instructors at the Anvi Institute of Fine Art in Tel Aviv? he and his family immigrated to Israel in 1949 - with having the greatest influence on his work.

"I had for four years the best painters in Israel in the art school in Tel Aviv," he said. "I was a funny student because I stole what I could, because I knew I was going to use it later. I was very selfish in what I took from three different teachers. One was the best in water-color; one was the best in drawing; sketching and theater design, and one was the best in oils. I think I took the maximum from each of them." .

However, the look that has become associated with Tarkay, he said, "was my style from the beginning. It is Tarkay-style." He views imitations of his work as complimentary. "It's nice. But at first it was very strange," he added.

Included in this show are almost 40 watercolors, soft and gentle and inpastel tones. Tarkay enjoys the more sensitive nature and hues of watercolors. "For me, it is like music," he said.

Morris Shapiro, gallery director at Park West, notes that it is extremely difficult to patint in watercolors. "Once you put it on paper, you cannot erase it or paint".