New Douglas Moulden Exhibit on Display at Signature Gallery

A solo exhibition featured the world of Maryland-based Douglas Moulden is on display at the Greater Reston Arts Center’s satellite gallery at the Signature apartments (11850 Freedom Drive) through August 29.

The exhibit, “A Purposeful Manner Towards a Vague Destination,” features a series of large-scale acrylic paintings on panels. The work is inspired by Moulden’s memories of woods near his Frederick, Md. home and the outskirts of the DC area.

GRACE said the following about the exhibit:

Calling on his expertise as a sculptor he makes his plywood panels, often utilizing non-traditional shapes, and then applies his paint in a unique fashion. His approach to research could be referred to as coddiwomple (v.), an obscure English slang word that gained popularity with globetrotters, meaning to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination. 

This is not the first time Greater Reston Arts Center has featured Moulden’s work. In the 2009 exhibition The Empty Landscape, curated by Joanne Bauer, Moulden presented a large body of paintings and sculptures, different from the ones seen here. Since then, he has lost the ability to use his signature technique of using a paint-filled syringe to draw, similar to pointillism, and build up the painting’s complex surface.

This set-back has affected the way in which Moulden creates his work but his deep appreciation for nature and the joy found in making beautifully crafted objects is still his driving force. In this exhibition, GRACE presents three new works,Things Are Looking Up, Puzzle, and Globe Thistle, the first of this artist’s transition from one method to another to capture the abstract and mysterious beauty in our area landscapes.

A curator’s talk is set for August 8 from noon to 1 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Photo via GRACE