Review

"Church," Watercolor.

Herman Scharhag

10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Images Art Gallery
7320 W. 80th St.
Overland Park, KS
913.232.7113

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
Runs through: June 11.

Gallery site: http://www.imagesartgallery.org

Given that Herman Scharhag was an architect for four decades before taking up watercolors, you might expect his work to be rigid, precise and meticulously executed.

You'd be a third right. Two-thirds at the most.

Rigid, it isn't.

Scharhag's paintings, part of the current group show (along with Bobbi Toyne and Janie Clark) at Images Art Gallery in Downtown Overland Park, take a decidedly Impressionistic tack.  His work is colorful, vibrant and light-filled, whether depicting buildings, flowers or scenes from nature.

That said, his architectural background shows through in a painstaking attention to detail and an obvious affinity for lines both straight and sweeping.

Church, the piece atop today's post, showcases that latter quality. The titular structure is not depicted in blueprint-sterile regularity, but Scharhag's line work still manages to convey the building's solid strength.

Implied lines play a key part in this and other works as well. In the case of Church, everything — the angle of the eaves in the buildings to the right and left of the square, the lines of tents on either side of the central space — points to the red door in the center of the painting. It's a  nice bit of guided viewing by the artist.

Then again, isn't a good deal of architecture taken up by planning for, even engineering, traffic flow?

Just as a well-designed building or urban space does for people, so Scharhag's work does for the eye. He provides easy access, multiple entry points and enough going on inside to reward a thorough exploration.

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