January 9th - February 2009

We are pleased to announce the exhibition of paintings, ceramic tiles and ink drawings by Washington artist and muralist Wendy Garner. A native of California, and based in Washington, she has shown often in Italy and France. Garner is a passionate observer of nature and the radiant effects of sunlight. Her subject is shared by scores of great landscape painters of the past from Corot, and the Impressionists, to the Hudson River Valley School and the Canadian “7”. Timeless, her work could hang side by side with any of these artists - her style transcends its period through its sheer quality. The color and texture is lush in all the paintings and her scenes of Rock Creek Park and her local familiar views are as romantic and rich as her paintings of the beaches of Noirmoutier, France and the fields in Italy’s Tiber valley.

This show includes several dramatic and beautiful seascapes recalling the dynamic ocean scenes by Winslow Homer. Garner lovingly portrays local fishing boats reflected in a quiet bay and skillfully renders the glass-like surface of a river in deep blues.  Garner’s new wave paintings are sometimes ominous - she paints the impending crashing of the powerful curl and conveys a sense of the weight of the water. The new work is more abstract and less serene than her earlier Dumbarton Oaks series and her desert landscapes. Perhaps her recent paintings of waves are more reflective of our turbulent times, and big waves have made big news lately. The viewer’s image of a surfer’s delight is quickly replaced with thoughts of Katrina and the Indonesian tsunami.