Art, like the times, is changing constantly. Nothing seems permanent or predictable. This is particularly true of leading abstract artist Norberto “Lito” Carating, whose propensity for changing his palette has often taken the art world by storm.

Carating first explored the colors of underwater life in his “Anilao” series many years ago. He later ventured in unearthing the subterranean world of the laman-lupa, characters from Philippine mythology. Then his colors began to take on a bolder, more flamboyant turn in his recent Budji Layug show.

It is, however, the weather that Carating has seemed particularly fond of these years. Dispatching his role as chronicle for the moods of the day, he engages the viewer in a kind of nonverbal dialogue over the countless possibilities that lie beneath the pictorial field.

In his latest show at the Hiraya (until Dec. 10) titled “Tranquil Refuge,” Carating has chosen only large and medium-sized works to elaborate on his oft-repeated theme, which here finds its rightful sanctuary in the overlapping layers of metallic acrylic, gold, copper and bronze that seem to glisten with twist and turn of his brush and palette knife.

The fervid colorist in Carating has, of course, rightly tampered his predilections for the uncanny sheen of metal. He does this by his playful Pirandellian discourse on the contradictions between appearance and reality. Thus, the dominant image we see in “Panaginip #3” is unmistakably of a diptych, a two-in-one pictorial field awash in shimmering bronze, which, on closer look, is broken down into smaller patterns that seem to conjure an infinity-edge pool. Characteristically, the artist breaks the monotony of the pervading hue with a small window in blue, located on the topmost side, which portends the subconscious state.

In “Homage to the Sun God,” Carating opts to paint gold and its undulating rhythms. The work resonates with his characteristic interplay of horizontal and vertical brushstrokes.

The color of copper dominates a large canvas, “Tempest,” a 5’ x 10’ triptych that is ominous because of its uncanny combination of dark blue and almost rust like hues, eliciting a mood that, like the weather, is just a unpredictable.

Emerging from the dark depths of the human soul, Carating turns to the day’s more lighter side in “Paradise,” an equally imposing work at 5’ x 7’ with its subtle play of light and shadow, as well as the contrasting, indeed complementary, gradating color effects.

Carating turns to an unusual shade of mint green in “Reflection #1.” The work displays mellifluous gradations in the usual vertical-horizontal interplay.

Carating is undoubtedly at his best when he chooses to project the luminescence of silver as in “Mirage#2,” a magisterial work that is almost minimalist, and correctly so. Here, Carating has reduced all the elements to their barest essentials, leaving only the subtle shift in color to conjure a diaphanous effect.

In the work, Carating shows what greater possibilities lurk behind the silver lining. Truly, magic has its way of creating what colors have set out to do. Carating is a master sorcerer who can get away with any color and mood.