Artist Profile

Dana Ann Scheurer’s “Watercolors” are a new and whimsical surrealism, rich in inventive images of architectural and geometric forms.  In absurd juxtaposition, Old Masters, humanoid sculptures, paintbrushes, palettes, bicycles, and fish are accompanied by and orchestra of musical instruments and keyboards.  Intimate columns in complex corridors of architectural spaces weave through interior and exterior landscapes, as an occasional “Saturn on a String” dances over head.  Scheurer’s mastery of her medium allows her to create a poetry of detail that leads to delights that are the rewards of repeated viewing of her work.  The spiritual impact of these gentle watercolors is a general feeling of an intense, benign, and beautiful universe welcoming us all with all its wonders.  Scheurer’s work has been described as “highly idiosyncratic, funny, challenging and precise, and a little difficult to describe in print.”

Scheurer has lived in Reston Virginia since 1981 with her husband Michael,  and two daughters, Laura and Elizabeth.  She studied Intaglio Printmaking at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and The John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis.  The structure and well-defined edges of her watercolors are direct result of her printmaking background.

Scheurer was commissioned by The Reston Historic Trust Museum to design the 2009 Founder’s Day designs.  Recent commissions include Arlington Housing Corporation,  Architecture, Inc., featured artist for both the Reston Town Center pavilion wall and the Reston Town Center Management Group, and by the new reston.com travel website. She also designed the 2007 Reston Home Tour Logo.

When not painting, Scheurer and husband, Michael, compete in marathons and triathlons.  She combined the disciplines of both athletics and art when designing the 2003 and 2008 Reston Triathlon posters.  

Selected works are now being reproduced as limited edition Iris Giclee prints by the master printers at Old Town Editions, of Alexandria, Virginia.  Each print is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.   The deep, well saturated colors printed on watercolor paper, retain the minute detail and subtleties of the original paintings.