Upon entering the Faculty Club on the second floor of the Inn at Penn, I found photographs of the artist with her "tools of the trade" immediately to my right. After reading that Deena Gu's art is a mixture of her native Chinese craft and her training at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, I was ready to view her expressive watercolor paintings.
There were 14 paintings in all, ranging in price from $950 to $4,000, and three were from a private collection. Seven of the paintings featured sunsets similar in perspective but varying in palette. Particularly vibrant was "Sunset Views I, II and III," a series of the sun setting over a body of water. As the sun sinks lower, the pinks darken into oranges and finally brilliant reds while the lake dims into various shades of gray. Although she used same image repeatedly, Gu was able effectively to convey a sense of differentiation. Gu's masterful and precisely detailed watercolors were very evocative.
Even though Gu's sunsets were of Cape Cod, Mass., she did not forget her heritage--"Classic View" and "Guilan's View" depicted landscapes in China.ÿGu used only monochromatic grays on these two pictures and the detail of each individual stroke was so fine they suggested hours of careful work.
Gu's show ended when October did. But the narrow, dimly-lit hallway that is the Burrison Gallery is something that you'll stumble on when going to dine with a professor. If you're ever there, stall on the way to the bathroom to check out the next exhibit.
