“ROOFTOP VIEW LBI”: This painting is part of Rider University’s exhibit of watercolors by Professor Harry I. Naar. “Watercolors: Observed and Imagined” is on display in the Rider University Art Gallery in the Bart Luedeke Center through November 30. An artist’s talk is Wednesday, November 7 at 7 p.m.

The Rider University Art Gallery features an exhibit of watercolors by Rider Professor and Gallery Founder and Director Harry I. Naar, running through November 30. An artist’s talk is Wednesday, November 7 at 7 p.m.

Judith K. Brodsky, distinguished professor emerita with Rutgers University’s Department of Visual Arts, has written that Naar’s watercolors “…blend the broken strokes of Cézanne, the rhythmic qualities of Van Gogh and the linear marks of Derain into works infused throughout with a charged sensuality.”

Reflecting on the exhibit, titled “Watercolors: Observed and Imagined,” Naar says, “I want the image to be rebellious, to resist the eye even as it draws you into space. Everything comes from an observed reality for me. Landscape is a passage, you let yourself enter it, you are pulled into it, and I think I find myself exploring the space I’ve created on the page. For me, marks on a page, whether made with a brush or a pen, are an attempt to transcribe how I move through space. The marks are records of where my eyes have been—they shape space in a picture, something like what Giacometti did in his paintings. All the lines define the space.”

Naar received his BFA from Philadelphia College of Arts (now University of the Arts) and his MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana where he was a fellowship student and teaching assistant. He also studied in Paris, France, where he met frequently with the renowned painter Jean Helion. He has served on the Rider University faculty for 38 years.

Listed in Who’s Who in American Art, Naar has exhibited his work in numerous one-person and group exhibitions throughout the country and abroad, and his work is included in numerous private and public collections.

The Rider University Art Gallery is located in the Bart Luedeke Center on Rider University’s campus, 2038 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrenceville. It is open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. To learn more, visit www.rider.edu/arts.