Click on the slide show above to learn how Shola Friedensohn creates her art.

Artist Shola Friedensohn works with colored pencils on black paper to capture the vibrancy in her landscapes and still lifes.

“It’s exciting to see the contrast develop,” says Friedensohn, a graphic designer with BU’s Creative Services department. “The black of the paper shows through, and the lines that are left can have a stained glass effect; some of the shapes are outlined in black, and it pops.”

She first attempted the technique while visiting her brother in Nepal in 1993. Now, she escapes the bustle of the city for two weeks every summer, heading a couple of hours west to Wellspring House, a retreat for writers and artists, in Ashfield, Mass., to immerse herself in her work.

With work that ranges from water grates and doorknobs to sunsets in Hawaii, Friedensohn isn’t limited by subject. “I hope that when people look at my drawings, they’ll think about what they see — how beautiful the world is.”

For more information about Friedensohn’s work, contact her at shola@bu.edu.

Kimberly Cornuelle can be reached at kcornuel@bu.edu.

Additional reporting by Robin Berghaus. She can be reached at berghaus@bu.edu.