Intuitive abstractionPaintings by Petra Nimtz

Viewings by appointment only
Reservations required, e-mail: janusz@chashama.org

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 22, 6-8pm

Petra Nimtz began seriously painting later in life after she left her native country, Germany. As a child she loved art and did a lot of it at home.  She would hold exhibitions with her sister where they would sell work to their parents for a dime. As she grew, she gradually stopped painting.  It was only as an adult, after she moved to Canada that she started making art again. There, with a fresh eye, she began to paint again, using a unique method, which she continued to develop after settling in Woodstock, NY.

Nimtz’s works are explorations of intuitive abstraction.  Her work seeks to capture that special impulse that drives imagination and creativity, revealing in her inventive abstractions both a narrative of the inner mind and a reflection of the world around her.

Using her non-dominant hand to paint gestural strokes, creating unique compositions where color, form, and line emerge and coalesce. Initially an automatic process, over the years, it has become more controlled and led to interesting innovations. While her eye directs her attention, she paints in a way that purposely resists muscle memory. It is from this relative lack of control that the radiant tensions in her paintings stem.  She does not control what she is doing but allows her right side of the brain to imagine what goes on the canvas when she paints.  Working spontaneously and without limitation, she creates fresh and imaginative works that are unhindered by preconceived notions or predetermined characteristics. Although forms and strokes naturally repeat, Nimtz reacts individually and uniquely to each occurrence on the canvas. Step by step, she allows the image within to create its own ecology of shape and color. She paints to document what she calls “visual diaries of her inner world.”