Lesa C. Lim at F.A.N. Gallery

This new exhibit consists of several dozen watercolors, pastels and monoprints, largely depicting autumnal or wintry landscapes. For a bit of contrast, there are several large flower pieces, which add bright splashes of color to what is otherwise a very subdued exhibit. In her artist’s bio, Lim is quoted as saying, “Our surroundings are an allegory of life.” Those words, taken at face value, may suggest that Lim leads a very subdued life.

I circled the exhibit several times, not because Lim art’s is especially difficult to grasp— quite the opposite: It may seem too simple, too meager at a first hurried glance. Lim deals in a sort of visual perfume. It’s a very subtle fragrance— a harmony of colors, the lightning strike of a line across the paper’s surface. Sometimes she will give her compositions titles like Of Great Longing or Joy, but sometimes she opts for more objective and technique-grounded titles, like Blue Into Green or Green Into Green. Same intriguing results either way.

If I had to develop a Hollywood-style pitch for this show, I would say: “George Inness meets Asian art.” I would also suggest that lovers of landscape art acquaint themselves with Lim’s vision.