SHARON FISHEL and NANCY SAUSSER    Small Worlds
November 20 – December 23, 2009
Artist Talk, Saturday, November 21, 5 pm
Opening Reception, Saturday, November 21, 6 – 7:30 pm

Reston, VA: Greater Reston Arts Center is pleased to present two Focus Exhibitions:

Doug Moulden’s sculpted paintings are featured in The Empty Landscape while Sharon Fishel’s intimate, nature paintings and Nancy Sausser’s wall-mounted, ceramic sculptures comprise a two-person exhibition, Small Worlds. The artists will give a gallery talk about their work at 5 pm on Saturday, November 21. An opening reception will follow from 6 – 7:30 pm.

Also, please join us for:

Appetite for Art: Contemporary Art Series for Seniors*. Mondays, November 23, 30, December 7, 14,
from 10:30 – Noon. Co-sponsored by Reston Community Center.
Super Studio! Hands-On Workshops, for ages 8 – 12*.  Monday, December 7, 3:30 – 5 pm.
*For registration and fees, visit www.restonarts.org/education
hub theatre at GreaterRestonArtsCenter, The Clockmaker, staged reading, Thursday, December 17,
7:30 – 9:30 pm. Free.

In The Empty Landscape, Doug Moulden exhibits his fine sensitivity to the natural world through large-scale acrylic on panel paintings. On long walks through the woods and fields near his Frederick, Maryland home, Moulden gathers imagery via photography and memory. Back in his studio, using a process that relies as much on sculpture as it does on painting, Moulden warps and shapes plywood panels and covers them with a dense network of paint applied through syringes.  Sometimes he carves into the surface, digging down through the physical history of his paint to reveal the density of landscape. Despite this laborious process, each painting vibrates rhythmically, evoking a world out of time. Reminiscent of Seurat’s pointillist work, Moulden’s paintings allude to a larger, more complex narrative than their surface serenity might imply. What appears to be a quiet countryside at first glance transforms over time into a more intricate story.  With a focus on creating paintings that resonate with his own highly developed aesthetic, Doug Moulden’s work invites long, satisfying  looks through mesmerizing surfaces to the mysterious world beyond the limits of visibility.

In Small Worlds, Sharon Fishel and Nancy Sausser juxtapose their divergent works to explore similar concerns. Both artists examine and celebrate the natural world but through different materials, techniques, and approaches. They explain that, “Using the landscape as a gateway, we create small worlds that bracket or freeze frame small moments or events in time as a way of looking at and seeing the world with greater clarity.”

Fishel is fascinated with plants. On strolls through her garden she watches the variety of ways in which plants move – spiraling, exploding, falling, opening, and closing. They remind the viewer that, for Fishel, each painting is an uncharted journey, subject to detours and intrusions but ending in one elegant, unified vision. In contrast to Fishel’s process of expanding infinitesimal floral activity, Nancy Sausser encapsulates grand geologic events within her small-scale, relief sculptures. She chooses towering mountains, crashing waves, and rippling waterfalls to miniaturize and package inside her simple geometric forms. Some of her clay vessels are the size and shape of Petri dishes, suggesting an inquiry into the elemental forces of nature; however, Sausser’s interest lies more in the emotional effects of landscape than in the forces that created it.

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Images –
Doug Moulden, Down by the River, acrylic on plywood, 34” x 64” x 4”
Sharon Fishel, Orchis, oil on canvas, 17” x 13”
Nancy Sausser, Three Ways Around, Circle, Square, Triangle, 12” x 12” x 3” each

GreaterRestonArtsCenter
12001 Market Street
Suite #103
Reston, VA 20190
703.471.9242
fax 703.471.0952
info@restonarts.org

The Empty Landscape – Doug Moulden
Small Worlds – Sharon Fishel and Nancy Sausser
November 20 – December 23, 2009
Artist Talk – Saturday November 21, 5 – 6 pm
Reception – Saturday November 21, 6 – 7:30 pm

Join or renew your membership today! http://www.restonarts.org/support/Membership.htm