The Washington Art Association located @ 4 Bryan Memorial Plaza in Washington Connecticut is presenting the “Chelminski & Offenhartz” an exhibition featuring the work of two accomplished Connecticut artists, each has over five decades of experience of making visual illuminations that celebrate living in the light and color of Connecticut. For Cheminski it begins at his Bridgwater home and a wildflower meadow filled with echinacea, phlox, beebalm, foxgloves, evening primrose. For Offenhartz it’s the foot of Mohawk mountain in Cornwall.
Michael Chelminski’s landscape paintings abstract acute observation of space and light and form. His diary of rapid, observational calligraphic watercolors informs his oil paintings which incorporate a series of overlapping patterns varying in density to suggest leaves, forest, waves, clouds. His paintings are about the balance of color, value, layers and turning marks into his own pictorial vocabulary.
Harvey Offenhartz defines his work as “drawing color.” He does not paint them but draws them using oil pastels and ground colored pigment to create color interactions. The images are touched and massaged into life with an intimacy and density that draws us in to a haptic meditation. His work is not referential; he does not depict images or suggest them. Lack of a recognizable imagines is important to him. It is also why his works are untitled; preferring to generate sensation from what the viewer sees and feels.
The pairing of these two artists makes for a dazzling, yet completive visual experience .
Connecticut Travel 
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