This watercolor reveals the degree to which many of the exhibitors at the California Water Color Society annuals during the postwar years embraced abstract expressionism, a style generally associated with East Coast artists. Circumstance at Meridian II was created at the height of the first generation of abstract expressionism and demonstrates Ruben’s somewhat brooding explorations of the energy and calligraphy of that postwar aesthetic. The surface is heavily encrusted with many layers of pigment of varying thickness and opacity. Ruben brushed the paint on in wide expanses and thin strokes; he even used a sponge to apply the pigment in some passages. His paint almost appears alive, its slow movement causing ripples, crevices, and irregularly shaped concretions. On the right, wiry lines merge to form a spidery web caught on the surface of the paper. While Ruben spared nothing in his rich surfaces, he limited his palette to organic colors: white, cream, flesh, and black, with touches of reddish orange for some of the delicate linear passages. This was one of a series of paintings similar in formal terms and in their power and refinement.