Cerulean Arts is pleased to present Juxtaposed, featuring work by Joan Wadleigh Curran, Peggy Tutelman Merves and Julie Zahn. In her oil and gouache paintings, Curran addresses issues of strength, vulnerability and the unstable state of our contemporary environment. Using convincing description, lush color and arresting composition she seduces the viewer while subtly undercutting beauty with the unexpected, unsettling and provocative. Merves explores the interplay between the still life and landscape in her oil paintings, reflecting her love of Matisse and Bonnard. Rather than creating trompe l’oeil illusions, she seeks to reduce her observed-from-life subjects to essentials, celebrating the color, line and brushwork of the painted surface itself. Painter and printmaker Zahn employs oil, watercolor, collage and the Japanese stencil method of Katazome in her mixed media works. Creating a lush world of gardens and landscapes under moonlight and sunshine, in summer and winter, her work celebrates the richness and beauty of life itself.