Diana Suttenfield has spent the past thirty years observing the light falling on her surroundings and portraying its effects in pastel and paint. This exhibition is a survey of her work.

The exhibition will be in place from March 1 to July 5. A preview reception is scheduled for Feb. 28 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. In addition, a Gallery Talk by Suttenfield will be held Sunday, March 15 at 2:30 p.m. at the museum.

She has worked in a variety of mediums and has exhibited in national and international galleries and competitions; and her work is in private and corporate collections throughout the United States.

Since the mid 1980s, her paintings and pastels have focused on the regional landscape of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Diana Suttenfield was born in Washington, D.C. As a child, she lived and traveled extensively with her parents in Europe. One of her vivid memories is of the sunlight, shadows, arches and pool of the Alhambra, a Moorish palace in Spain. This interest in light and architecture influenced her artwork of the 1970s -1980s.

Her parents moved to Shepherdstown, West Virginia in 1962, and she attended Shepherd College. In 1972, Suttenfield received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and returned to Shepherdstown.

Finding a large studio space to continue making large abstract paintings, she started to notice, and sketch her local surroundings of old buildings and landscape. Her interest in older architecture led her to produce four pen and ink sketchbooks; the last, The C and O Canal; an Illustrated History (text by T. Hahn), 1981, was reviewed by the Washington Post Book World.

In 1993, several of her pastels were selected to represent the United States, through the U.S. Department of State, Art in Embassies Program, Maryland.

Washington County Museum of Fine Arts

Established in 1931 and dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting works of art for the people of Washington County and citizens from the four-state region, the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts has been recognized as one of the finest small museums in the United States. Located in Hagerstown’s beautiful City Park, and accredited by the American Alliance of

Museums, its collection includes over 6,500 works of art. The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts has an enduring commitment to arts education and to the support of regional artists. The Museum actively collects works of art in the fields of

American Art, world cultures, and art of the region. The museum regularly offers studio art courses, art historical lectures, concerts and exhibitions from its permanent collection and traveling shows.

The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts is funded through support from museum membership and annual fund donations by the public, grants from the business and corporate communities, and support from Washington County, the City of Hagerstown, private foundations, and the Maryland State Arts Council. For more information on the Museum, please phone (301) 739-5727 or visit www.wcmfa.org.

Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission to the Museum and adjacent parking is free.