March Show: Line and Light

New works by: Jennifer Cadoff and Doug Sardo

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 8th, from 6 to 9 pm
Show Dates: March 7 through April 6, 2008

"Line and Light" is a first! This month, the Artists' Gallery introduces their newest member: pastel painter Doug Sardo, whose dancing ribbons of color will delight your eyes and thrill your soul. The contrast between Doug's color-saturated paintings and that of co-exhibitor Jennifer Cadoff's beguilingly offbeat black-and-white drawings is startling and serves to highlight the unique strengths of each artist.

Doug Sardo is a former graphic artist who now paints with pastels full time. He captures his subjects – the reflective light on the Delaware, the wind moving through an ancient Sycamore, a red pickup truck mired in snow – on location near his Upper Black Eddy, PA, home. He uses color as an impressionist, juxtaposing complimentary hues that blend in the viewer’s eye. "I paint the color of the light in a scene, not the actual objects," says Mr. Sardo. "I work the pastels in layers, on sanded paper from Australia, which I mount on board. This allows me to hold and move the painting as I work on it. I never use an easel – it separates me from the creative process." Doug’s graphic artwork has been published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and he has painted many "treasure hunts" in Venice for longtime client Save Venice.

Princeton, NJ, artist Jennifer Cadoff is also inspired by everyday sights – horses in a field, an armful of pussy willows from the grocery store, bits of tree trimmings pocketed on a walk. "I like to come at my subjects from an unusual angle, or change their scale, or crop them tight, so that things one would usually pass by without a second thought are presented as I see them: Beautiful and worthy of consideration," says Ms. Cadoff. She simplifies forms into areas of tiny dots, black scribble, and the white of untouched paper. "I've actually been asked if I buy paper with dots and scribbles and collage them together," she says with a laugh, "but no, each piece is entirely hand-drawn. My obsessive personality is on display." Ms Cadoff’s award-winning art is often seen in regional juried shows, including those at Newark’s City Without Walls, Phillips Mill in New Hope PA, Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown NJ, the Philadelphia Sketch Club and the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, of which she is a signature member. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission.