Artwork copyright Paul Harcharik. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Compass, 1996

Paul Harcharik
American (born 1947)

Location: Central Washington University, Ellensburg

About the Artwork

Compass is a realist landscape painting by artist Paul Harcharik. It is part of the artist's body of landscapes that are "accessorized" by man. The canvas is populated by images symbolic of man's relationship to nature. The central imagery depicts an instrument called a transit, positioned above a tree stump. The instrument is used to measure true values of vertical and horizontal. Harcharik notes that the image symbolizes "a correction or truth from nature or perhaps a learning from the past."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Central Washington University.

About the Artist

Paul Harcharik creates figurative landscape and still life paintings, drawings, and prints. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina and Master of Fine Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1975. Harcharik made his home on the Olympic Peninsula near Sequim, Washington in the 1990s. He now resides in North Carolina.