Lori Dubois' Garden Variety B

A square composition of uncommon stillness, Garden Variety B arrives as a watercolor on paper framed in satin gold-finished wood — its dimensions nearly perfectly proportioned at thirty-three inches to a side, lending it the quiet authority of something closer to a window than a work of art. Lori Dubois handles botanical subject matter with an editorial restraint that suits the Sutter & Vale sensibility entirely, neither overly romantic nor academically austere. The satin gold surround acts as architecture, holding the work at a deliberate remove and allowing it to assert itself against wall treatments of considerable weight.