Gwen Lewis Gwen Lewis prefers black-and-white photography, such as in “Lobby Life,” to emphasize shapes.

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Edwin Gould Ceramic artist Edwin Gould incorporates nature themes in “5 Spiral Dragonfly Tails.”
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Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Colored Pencil Society of America Connie Grace’s “Chloe” is among the works “Colored Pencil Perceptions” at Glenview Mansion.
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Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Colored Pencil Society of America Gloria Callahan’s “Pomegranate Still Life” is one of 44 works by the members of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Colored Pencil Society of America at the Glenview Mansion Art Gallery.

Gwen Lewis Gwen Lewis prefers black-and-white photography, such as in “Lobby Life,” to emphasize shapes.

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She may not use software like Photoshop, but Gwen Lewis likes to manipulate her black-and-white images. Instead of digital aid, the photographer relies on perception and tools such as telephoto lenses to remove depth from her pictures.

“For instance,” she says, “if you’re looking from a distance at a staircase, you don’t see it as a three-dimensional trend going upward, but instead, you see it as this design of these lines.”

Along with a collection from the Colored Pencil Society of America and the works of ceramic artist Edwin Gould, Lewis’ photographs are on display through Nov. 1 at the Glenview Mansion Art Gallery in Rockville.

A photographer all her life, Lewis says she became serious about her passion 13 years ago after an taking an early retirement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture where she was the Director of Higher Education Programs.

The name of Lewis’ collection in the show at Glenview is “Geometry of Urban Places.” Works such as “Keyhole” take the normal perspective of looking through a keyhole and turn it on its head by removing the third dimension. At times, this blending of dimensions stumps viewers.

“I will tell people if they ask what it’s taken of, but I think that it’s irrelevant,” Lewis says. “Really because the beauty of the thing is what one wants to look at.”

Shapes are important to Lewis, which explains why urban architecture attracts her. Her photograph, “Building Breakup,” taken in 2001 in Richmond, Va., shows the face of a glass building reflecting the intricate designs of a neighboring structure. Another piece, “Luxury View,” was taken in 2007 from inside an Archstone apartment building in Chevy Chase during construction. In the photo, a crew member peers over the edge; his curving shape obscures the otherwise square patterns of beams and windows.

“I like manmade constructions, and I like to show how they’re intended to or unintended in providing these abstract designs,” Lewis says.

Her attachment to form is also a reason she favors black-and-white photography.

“I think that black-and-white brings out much more than color [does] because what I’m getting at is the abstract, and the color in this situation would be more distracting,” she points out.

Lewis’ work is not restricted to architecture. “Rural America,” her recent exhibit at the Kentlands Mansion in Gaithersburg, featured landscape shots.

Form is also important to Edwin Gould. The ceramic artist began working with clay 20 years ago while looking for a hobby for himself and his then-teenage daughter to share. Since he began studying with an instructor in a Columbia, Md., cellar, Gould has been creating ornate vases and mirror frames. His “Spiral Dragonfly Tails” exhibit at Glenview features pots consisting of intricate, weaving patterns and detailed insects.

Yam leaves are one of his favorite forms of nature.

“Those particular leaves are heart shaped and they lend themselves to clay imprints so I use that a lot and the spiral just came to me one day when I saw a piece of art that had a spiral and I thought, ‘Wow I would like to get some kind of vertical form because I do everything so horizontally with coils,’” Gould says.

As a professor at the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University for 18 years, Gould conducted research on animals from gorillas to shrews in Madagascar and Malaysia. He also worked as curator of animals for the National Zoo for 16 years until his 1996 retirement.

For Gould, laboring over his art feels like an extension of past endeavors.

“If I try to draw, nothing pleases me,” Gould says. “When I work with a piece of clay, I just never know what’s going to come out of it. I’ve been a gardener for a long, long time — just a partial farmer. I like to work with the soil in my hands, so that all fit for me.”

“Colored Pencil Perceptions,” the third collection now on view at Glenview, features work by 22 members of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Colored Pencil Society of America. Members selected the work to be shown via an online poll.

Blair Jackson, the chapter’s president and founder who has three pieces in the show, says the title is indicative of the wide range of styles on display.

“You’re going to get a lot of different techniques and a lot of different subjects,” Jackson says. “When you look at all these different drawings, you kind of explore all the different artists themselves and you see what interests them and what their lives are like.”

Technique spans from the light shading in Jackson’s “Walking Tall,” which features a man casually striding through grass, to the richly colored kayaks of Mary Ellen Geissenhainer’s “Conversation Over Morning Coffee.”

Jackson became interested in colored pencil while taking classes at Torpedo Factory in Alexandria in 1990. Four years later, the Clifton, Va. resident started the local chapter.

“Back in ’94, I actually had small children and I thought that I would like to work in a medium that wouldn’t require a lot of cleanup and a lot of preparatory work,” she recalls.

The society holds regular workshops, critiques and drawing trips. In the some 17 years the organization has existed, Jackson says many of the original members continue to participate, commuting across the metro region from Winchester, Va., to Waldorf.

“I think once people start in colored pencil, they really get enthusiastic about it. There are a lot of great tools to use,” Jackson says.

The three mediums — photography, ceramics and colored pencil — now at the Glenview Mansion Art Gallery have been drawn together to create a diverse exhibit.

tforhecz@gazette.net

The works of the Colored Pencil Society of America, Edwin Gould and Gwen Lewis are on view through Nov. 1 at the Glenview Mansion Art Gallery, 603 Edmonston Drive, Rockville. Call 240-314-8682 or visit www.rockvillemd.gov.