Rosemarie Forsythe spent decades as a U.S. diplomat, living in seven countries and visiting more than 60. Now the self-taught artist is bringing that global perspective to Lake Anne Plaza in a solo exhibition of wildlife and landscape paintings layered with 23-karat gold leaf.

"Natural Wonders" opens Sept. 5 at Reston Art Gallery and Studios and runs through Sept. 27, according to Patch. Forsythe will meet visitors during a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13.

The show features horses, parrots, leopards and an alligator alongside patterned fish, forests, wildflowers and moonlit palm leaves. Landscapes range from Southern sand dunes to winter scenes with birch trees. Forsythe draws on subjects she encountered in her Virginia backyard and in far-flung places from her years abroad, according to Tysons Today.

What sets the work apart is technique.

Forsythe takes inspiration from 15th-century illuminated manuscripts, pressing gold rivets into acrylic paintings to add texture and dimension. Some canvases also carry mathematics and physics equations tied to their subjects, such as the mechanics of a horse's movement or the speed of a leopard.

Before picking up a brush, Forsythe worked as a policymaker and international business executive. Since 2017, the U.S. Department of State's Art in Embassies program has displayed her paintings at embassies in Austria, Jordan and Bolivia. Her work was also selected for the Brussels office of Rose Gottemoeller, then NATO's deputy secretary general.

Forsythe is a juried member of Reston Art Gallery and serves on the advisory board and Director's Circle of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She contributed paintings of colorful paddleboats and canoes to the gallery's "Art of Lake Anne" group show in January.

The gallery sits at 11400 Washington Plaza West on the lakeside of Lake Anne Plaza, its entrance marked by an orange "ART" sign. It is steps from the Saturday morning Farmers Market and lakeside restaurants with outdoor seating.

How to visit

  • Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 27
  • Other times by appointment: [email protected]
  • Free children's crafts: 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays, April through December

Upcoming at Lake Anne

  • Sept. 5: "Natural Wonders" exhibition opens
  • Sept. 13, 2–4 p.m.: Meet-the-artist reception with Rosemarie Forsythe
  • Sept. 27: Exhibition closes