“Passing Impressions” exhibit at Gallery A

By Mark Jenkins

There is warmth and vitality in Lynn Mocarski Maurer’s drawings of blossoms, leaves and stems, even though they are entirely in shades of gray. “Passing Impressions,” the Virginia artist’s show at Gallery A, is not impressionistic. Maurer represents contour, light and shadow with exquisite accuracy, celebrating natural forms but also the nature of pencil on paper.

Some of these modestly scaled pictures are set off by near-black backdrops, shiny with thickly applied graphite. Just as often, though, the defining aspect is a delicate line, as if to emulate the fragility of fresh buds and tiny creatures. The ants depicted in one drawing are not there to spoil the picnic but to represent the life force — and because a near-photographic realist such as Maurer could hardly deny that there are insects as well as flowers in the garden.

Lynn Mocarski Maurer’s Midlife (graphite on paper, 42” x 42”) from her Passing Impression Show at Gallery A.