Greater Reston Arts Center / Focus Exhibitions

November 20 -December 23, 2009

The Empty Landscape - Doug Moulden
Small Worlds - Sharon Fishel and Nancy Sausser

Artist Talk - Saturday November 21, 5 - 6 pm
Reception - Saturday November 21, 6 - 7:30 pm

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.

Nancy Sausser, A Small View In, 12” x 12” x 3”, ceramic, 2009

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.  In contrast to Fishel’s process of expanding infinitesimal floral activity, Nancy Sausser encapsulates grand geologic events within her small-scale, relief sculptures.


Greater Reston Arts Center
12001 Market Street
Suite #103
Reston, VA 20190
703.471.9242
www.restonarts.org