Art is often an expression of joy, just as much as it can be an expression of grief, sorrow or anger — or any other number of emotions. Art doesn’t have to be an expression of feeling, but the art that speaks to the artist’s joy in the making is often the most engaging. On view at Editions Limited Gallery in Broad Ripple, the dual show of work by Carolyn Springer and Barbara Zech — both local artists — isn’t about joy, but the artists’ joy in the making is clearly evident.

Springer, a versatile colorist, moves from dark russets to powdery blues, not necessarily within the same painting, but sometimes. Springer’s mixed media materials and methods include encaustic, sea salt and gold leaf, which occasionally makes itself known beneath a sheen of wax.

From her small, square sunflower paintings — adorned with actual sunflower seeds — to her large, semi-lyrical flower paintings and the occasional landscape, Springer explores more or less static spaces as a springboard toward something more substantial. Her flower paintings speak to English drawing rooms and afternoon tea, although none of these accessories are present — just a vase of flowers set on a surface with a minimal background of wall or window.

In “London Still Life,” an overfull vase with roses in red, salmon pink and the occasional white sits atop a long surface, slightly off center, an opaque window behind. As inspiration for the painting, Springer quotes Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway, a decidedly interior novel also abundant with flowers: “And it was the moment between six and seven when every flower — roses, carnations, irises, lilac — glows; white, violet, red, deep orange; every flower seems to burn by itself.” Springer’s paintings borrow inspiration from other literary muses as well — John Steinbeck and Marcel Proust among them.

The ceramic work of Barbara Zech is equally versatile, but in terms of her medium. Zech’s wall pieces resemble abstract canvases, Zen-like in their minimalism. Her vessels, on the other hand, are at once ancient and immediate, their wide mouths brightly colored in shades of blue and green, their exteriors scored with a nonverbal sort of visual language that is both primitive and complex.

Zech’s work spans from more traditionally conceived platters to a series of “wall logs” — delightfully patterned as if to suggests the many contrasts between decoration and the origins of things. Circles, random lines, dots, the outlines of branches — these are among her primary currency, and she wields them delightfully.

Carolyn Springer: Perennial Beauty and Barbara Zech: Defining Space are on view at Editions Limited, 838 E. 65th St., through April 5. Call 317-466-9940 for hours and information.