Circular reasoning

There’s no question: The circle is broken in Ellen Beauregard’s artistic vision, exhibited through July 31 at Deep Art Lounge, 2030 H Street. Far more powerful than her stylized dragonfly images are Beauregard’s abstract acrylic and oil paintings on wood panels, focusing on a pierced circle. “Red Order in Chaos” offers a deep crimson, atmospheric background for the free-formed orb delineated in black tar that drips into the shape. Even more dramatically, a 4-inch panel of gleaming pounded copper, rich with texture, slices through the sphere at its poles. That pounded copper appears again, beautifully separating three very painterly and expressionistic poses of a woman’s back in the triptych “Layers to Figure.” Curiously, in “Shades of Autumn,” the hard edges of black horizontal bands slice through a pile of delicate leaves, their intricate skeletons layered, lacy and multicolored. For more information, call (916) 448-3337.