Lesa Cittenden Lim’s and Meighen Jackson’s art displays supremely nuanced observations of the world. These artists’ gestural abstraction in Chelsea’s River Gallery “Observation, Gesture, Interpretation” is easily some of the most refined art we’re going to see this year.

These artists’ subtly crafted art illustrates abstract expressionism’s enduring strength as a unique art form where the artist’s touch is as unique as his or her fingerprint.

There’s enough similarity in Lim’s and Jackson’s gesture to comfortably balance the exhibit. Yet there’s also enough difference between their approaches to make the display a multifaceted illustration of contemporary landscape.

As Meighen Jackson says in her gallery statement, “How can an artist produce works that convey complex layers of meaning and emotion and yet preserve the excitement of the first impression, the energy of the initial sketch?

“I asked myself this question nine years ago when, after reviewing hundreds of my paintings and drawings, I had to admit that my most exciting works — those that still seemed honest and insightful years after their creation— were thirty second gesture drawings. These drawings, made with Asian brush and ink, directly from nature, had the authority and idiosyncrasies of direct observation undiluted by second thoughts.

“Yet to stop with these first impressions seemed too limiting, too one-dimensional. It precluded exploring how the initial image related to other images and to its environment. Further it eliminated color, with all of its emotional impact, from the artistic toolbox.”

Let’s just say Jackson’s toolbox is quite full. Her solution to her own question is to overlay her work until the repetition reinforces the immediacy of her touch. The result is elemental and ornate.

There’s a remarkable concision to Jackson’s work that directly reflects the Asian aesthetic she mentions, where strong line and a variegated ink wash craft bold strokes of representation. And she then embellishes this line with additional strategic brushstrokes, often appending gold foil.

Merging this style of art with western abstraction — where the tension of the painting pulls the viewer into the work’s inner dynamic — Jackson creates an expressive tautness that’s both emotional and formal.

Of Jackson’s 20 mixed-media paintings on display, “Tall Grass Morning” shows her mixture of east and west at its best.

The artwork’s foreground diagonal black stems are a lively flurry of gestural immediacy set against a scrubbed background that in turns creates a vibrant undertone flanked by gold foil. The work therefore is a studied meditation on nature framed by a rich exterior—and the contrast serves Jackson well.

By contrast, Lesa Chittenden Lim says, “My paintings are inspired by an emotional response to nature. I am profoundly moved by nature and the beauty of our earth.

“Rather than recording an exact eternal reality, I express the inner sensations caused by my visual perceptions; calmness, serenity, movement, awe, desolation to name a few. The more I look, the more I believe that our surroundings are an allegory of life. I paint ‘portraits’ of trees, with their families, lovers, and friends.”

These qualities represent the grand themes as well as the smallest details that give Lim's art its emotional wisdom.

She looks at the landscape genre through the guise of a psychological minimalist; a heightened sense of awareness arises out of the most controlled of touches. Her work boasts both immediacy and rich emotive depth.

She’s contributed 27 paintings to the exhibit, each a studied mediation on nature. And of these paintings, her pastel “The Embrace” shows her art at its finest form.

Two barren trees tangled in the dead of winter might seem negligible on first appearance. But in Lim’s hands, the work becomes a rumination on life and love. Lim’s use of pastel is instrumental in heightening the work’s theatricality. By placing isolated, yet intertwined trees in the work’s foreground, and contrasting them with an existential solitude, she makes a statement about the power of companionship that’s inclusive and wise. It only took an exceptional talent to turn relative loneliness into universal grandeur through such unembellished gesture.

“Lesa Chittenden Lim/Meighen Jackson: Observation, Gesture, Interpretation” will continue through April 30 at the River Gallery, 120 S. Main St., Chelsea. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday; and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. For information, call 734-433-0826.