Pathways: Exploring White’s Woods

From the first day Kerwin Mayers stepped onto the boardwalk at White’s Woods, which is part of White Memorial Foundation located off Rte. 202 in Litchfield  she knew this special area would beckon her again and again. Before moving to Litchfield Hills in 2007, she had not been a landscape painter, but the beauty of the region became a beacon that directed her work down this path.

Two years ago, she thought she would try a series of twelve paintings representing each month. Quickly the project expanded to more than thirty paintings taken from many spots in White’s Woods at all times of the year and all times of the day.  She is indebted to the Alaine White family for providing this amazing preservation for all to enjoy and for her, a blank canvas to fill. 

Kerwin started painting in oil at Sarah Lawrence College and has since studied for many years with Pamela duLong Williams. Her art education has been broadened through workshops with Wolf Kahn, Charles Sovek and Robert Burridge. In recent years her paintings have been in juried shows at the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Rowayton Arts Center and Kent Art Association.

A portion of all art sales benefit the Oliver Wolcott Library.  In addition, the artist will be giving an additional portion to the White Memorial Foundation for their boardwalk. In the gallery: through June 28. The Oliver Wolcott Library is located on 160 South Street, Litchfield, CT. 06759. 860-567-8030. www.owlibrary.org

From the first day Kerwin Mayers stepped onto the boardwalk at White’s Woods, which is part of White Memorial Foundation located off Rte. 202 in Litchfield  she knew this special area would beckon her again and again. Before moving to Litchfield Hills in 2007, she had not been a landscape painter, but the beauty of the region became a beacon that directed her work down this path.

Two years ago, she thought she would try a series of twelve paintings representing each month. Quickly the project expanded to more than thirty paintings taken from many spots in White’s Woods at all times of the year and all times of the day.  She is indebted to the Alaine White family for providing this amazing preservation for all to enjoy and for her, a blank canvas to fill. 

Kerwin started painting in oil at Sarah Lawrence College and has since studied for many years with Pamela duLong Williams. Her art education has been broadened through workshops with Wolf Kahn, Charles Sovek and Robert Burridge. In recent years her paintings have been in juried shows atthe New Britain Museum of American Art, the Rowayton Arts Center and Kent Art Association.

A portion of all art sales benefit the Oliver Wolcott Library.  In addition, the artist will be giving an additional portion to the White Memorial Foundation for their boardwalk. In the gallery: through June 28. The Oliver Wolcott Library is located on 160 South Street, Litchfield, CT. 06759. 860-567-8030. www.owlibrary.org

About White Memorial Foundation

The White Memorial Conservation Center, an Environmental Education Center and Nature Museum, is located in the heart of the 4000-acre White Memorial Foundation in the hills of northwestern Connecticut.

In 1964 the Center was established in the former home of Alain White and his sister, May. Their vision and generosity led to the formation of the White Memorial Foundation in 1913. A non-profit tax exempt organization, the Center was incorporated to add the goal of Education to the Conservation, Research, and Recreation purposes for which the foundation was formed.

The Conservation Center operates a Nature Museum with exhibits focusing on the interpretation of local natural history, conservation, and ecology, as well as a museum store, classrooms and dormitory. The outdoor arena includes the wildlife sanctuary maintained by the White Memorial Foundation. The Foundation today comprises 4000 acres of fields, water, and woodlands, trails, campgrounds, boating facilities, and special areas for large outdoor education and recreational gatherings. 

For more information about White Memorial www.whitememorialcc.org.  For information on Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com.  

New Exhibit on the Colonial Revival to Open at the Litchfield Historical Society

Dominated by the white clapboard Congregational meetinghouse, the stone clock tower of the Court House and the immaculate homes with white paint and black shutters, Litchfield has come to embody the quintessential New England town. It is easy to imagine our colonial ancestors living in such a beautiful pastoral setting. What is harder to image is that Litchfield’s picturesque beauty was not a product of the colonial era, but a late 19^th- and early 20^th- century movement known as the Colonial Revival.

Opening April 12, 2014, the Society’s new exhibit, The Lure of the Litchfield Hills, will explore what was behind the Colonial Revival Movement, how the residents of Litchfield embraced their ancestral past, and how the community came to look the way it does today. Visitors are invited to join in exploring this social movement that touched all aspects of American life from architecture and landscaping, to fashion, home decoration and beyond.

Featuring items from the museum’s collections, ranging from documents and photographs to furnishings, house wares, and clothing The Lure of the Litchfield Hillswill be a must-see exhibit. Come explore Litchfield’s past this spring, and don’t forget to stop by the Tapping Reeve House and Litchfield Law School to see the completed exterior renovations.

The exhibit will open on Saturday, April 12. The Litchfield History Museum’s hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, and Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 pm.

The Lure of the Litchfield Hills will run through the 2014 and 2015 seasons at the Litchfield History Museum, 7 South Street, Litchfield. For more information visitwww.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org or call 860-567-4501.

The Stairwell Gallery in Washington Presents Arthur Carter

The Stairwell Gallery at Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, CT is honored to present an exhibition of sculptures, orthogonals and paintings by Arthur Carter. The exhibit will be on view through June 21.

Mr. Carter’s early years might seem like another person’s full lifetime of events.  He was trained as a classical pianist, majored in French literature at Brown University, served three years in the United States Coast Guard as a lieutenant commanding officer of an air search and rescue craft, then received his MBA in finance from Dartmouth, followed by a 25 year career as an investment banker. 

 In 1981, he started a new venture.  Founding the Litchfield County Times and six years later the New York Observer, he began his career as a publisher.  He was also the publisher of theNation and the East Hampton Star.   And in 2008, the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute was founded at New York University where Mr. Carter is a trustee and chairman of the Board of Overseers of the Faculty of Arts and Science.  Mr. Carter has also held adjunct professorships in philosophy and journalism at NYU.

 Now we come to the “art part” of Mr. Carter – the grid design and layout of the front page of his newspapers inspired him to reproduce that same theme but in a three dimensional format and using stainless steel.  This was a material he had learned to master when he was in Officer Candidate School where he learned welding.  Thus, sculpting “became the latest statement of his polymath proclivities.”

 Artists naturally evolve and he was soon working with wood, clay and copper wire and then larger constructions in silicon bronze and stainless steel.  Many of his larger pieces are on permanent public display in New York City.  The fabrication process can take months to complete and involves all the complexities of a machine shop, but each piece begins with one common denominator, his sketch pad.

The Stairwell Gallery exhibit will include Mr. Carter’s Orthogonals.  A catalog of his exhibit at the New Britain Museum of American Art from the Fall of 2011, describes the pieces as follows: “Arthur Carter’s bold new series, which he calls collectively the Orthogonals, offers a fine example of a mixed mode that channels the powers of painting and sculpture through the distinguished medium of the relief.”  These pieces are complex in their simplicity.  They are strong, mathematical and like his other work, they vary in finish and are affected by the changing light and reflection.  Carter has said, “My work focuses on simplifying and eliminating the excessive.  The question is how does purity of design lend itself to making a beautiful and elegant piece?”

 Arthur Carter maintains a production facility and design studio in Roxbury, CT.  He has been a featured solo artist at many galleries, including the Tennessee State Museum, The Grey Art Gallery, 80WSE Galleries at New York University and the New Britain Museum of American Art.  Mr. Carter is the author of two hardcover books, Arthur Carter:  Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings (2009) and Arthur Carter:  Studies for Construction (2012).

 Gunn Memorial is most pleased to welcome this prolific artist who is still immersed in the world of manufacturing and finance around the world.  Perhaps his philosophy can help unify this “polymath” for us.  Mr. Carter has said, “The simpler the economics are, the better; if you don’t understand it, you don’t do it.  Purity in both design and business function means never dilute, never diffuse, and never bloat.”

 For further information please call (860) 868-7586 or email chartman@biblio.org . The Gunn Memorial Library is located at 5 Wykeham Road at the juncture of Route 47 opposite the Green in Washington, CT.  For library hours and to learn more about our programs and events visit our website www.gunnlibrary.org .

www.litchfieldhills.com

For information on Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

White Memorial Foundation located off of Rte. 202 is the State's largest nature sanctuary that offers a series of nature related programs that will intrigue and educate young and old alike.

On April 5 for examples, there is a llama walk with Deb Elias from Country Quilt Llama Farms.  This is your chance to walk a llama and find out how easy it is. Along the walk you will also learn all kinds of llama information. This is appropriate for children and adults. Sign-ups are necessary with a limit of 10 people per walk. 1:00 P.M., Meet in the Museum parking lot. $15.00 per person. Register directly through Deb by calling 860-672-2753 or emailing cqlf6@hotmail.com. A portion of the fee will be donated to White Memorial.

April 12 begins with a bird language club event with Andy Dobos and Deneen Berier that will help participants identify bird songs and their meanings. Bird language is the study of the songs, calls and body language of birds and other animals giving their running commentary of the world around them. Among other things, they announce the presence of predators and threats. Birders, hunters, photographers and outdoors people can use this understanding to move through the landscape without disturbing the wildlife they came to see as well as predicting the arrival of other animals.

While the club may spend some time observing birds to identify their species, it is not the focus of the club. The goal is to recognize the baseline of a specific area and what any change may indicate. The benefit of returning to the same location allows them to observe the impact of the progressing season. They invite participants in the club to share their knowledge so that  all grow in this new and exciting understanding of how we relate to our environment.

The club's event will take place outside sitting very still so bring an outdoor chair and warm clothes along with a notebook and binoculars. Meet in front of the A.B. Ceder Room, 7:00 A.M. — 10:00 A.M., Members: $15.00 Non-members: $20.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required.

On April 12, White Memorial is offering a road trip to the Studio of Wood Turner Bodger Richard Heys. Participants will admire the stunning work of Mr. Heys that includes decorative and utilitarian wooden bowls, vases, lidded vessels and sculptural objects made on the lathe and/or by carving. Evolving from a hobby in the early 1990s to a serious pursuit since he retired from a career in chemistry research in 2005, his work aims to reflect both the skills of the craft and an aesthetic response to the character of the wood. Heys obtains most of his wood locally from stormfelled or otherwise unwanted trees. Meet in front of the A.B. Ceder Room at 9:45 A.M. and join the carpool that sets off at 10:00 A.M. — 12:00 P.M.  This event is limited to 10 people. Pre-registration is required. FREE...Donations will be accepted to help defray the Conservation Center's programming expenses.

Also, on April 12, Reggie Delarm, a Connecticut native, and potter for over 40 years comes to White Memorial Foundation from 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. The incomparable Reggie Delarm will be demonstrating wheel thrown bird houses on her 1800s wooden treadle wheel. Her wooden treadle wheel is a replica wheel of local potter Hervey Brooks from Goshen CT. Foot-powered, hand-made wooden wheels were used throughout New England even after the invention of electricity!

Reggie will make a variety of birdhouses on her wheel. Round houses, face houses, and carrot houses are her specialty.

After the demonstration, you will learn to make little hand-made fairy garden pinch houses. These cute little clay houses will look great in a terrarium, garden, or around your yard. Clay houses must be fired. Reggie will fire your little pinch house at her studio. You can return to White Memorial to pick them up one week later.

This event will be held in the . B. Ceder Room, and is $30.00 per person which includes all materials and firing. Limited to 10 participants ages 8 and up. Pre-registration and pre-payment are required.

To finish off April 12, there will be an evening with photographer and musician Gary Melnysyn, a Conservation Center favorite that has been delivering delicious photography programs and workshops to us for several years. Tonight he will share with you some of his favorite wildlife photographs BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE...he will also break out the guitar and sing for you! This man has many hidden talents! Come out for a tasty potluck supper and an evening of music and nature unlike any other! BYOB and a pot luck dish plus your own place setting! 6:00 P.M., A.B. Ceder Room. Members: $20.00 Non-members: $25.00 Pre-registration and pre-payment are required.

For Litchfield Hills information www.litchfieldhills.com and for information on White Memorial Conservation www.whitememorialcc.org

Quilt Discovery Day In Kent

The Kent Historical Society will host quilt expert Sue Reich of Washington for an entire day of quilt evaluations Sunday, April 6 from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Kent Town Hall.

“Quilt Discovery Day” will allow registrants an opportunity to find out how much a family heirloom quilt might be worth and what time period it dates back to.

The cost is $15 for each quilt evaluation. This will be a verbal assessment with a form in which the quilt owner can write down the information. Those interested in viewing can sit in the audience and watch the quilts reviewed for an all-day ticket of $5.  KHS members at the $100 Patron level and above may have one free evaluation and one free all-day guest pass.

A digital photograph of each appraised quilt will also be taken and provided to the owner.

During the lunch break, quilter Veralyn Davee of Kent will give a brief demonstration on quilt-making.

A special presentation at 1:30 p.m. will focus on Tips for Care and Use to learn about the preservation, storage, care and suggested ways to display or hang a quilt. Admission is included in the all-day ticket to the event.

Reich is an author and lecturer on quilt history and has been a quiltmaker since childhood. She lectures widely on many aspects of quilt history, and is a certified American Quilt Society quilt appraiser. She co-authored “Quilts and Quiltmakers Covering Connecticut” and authored “Quilting News of Yesteryear: One Thousand Pieces and Counting,” as well as “Quilting News of Yesteryear: Crazy as a Bed-Quilt.”

Reservations and a deposit are required for quilt evaluations. Use our online form at www.kenthistoricalsociety.org to pay with PayPal or please send a check to payable to the Kent Historical Society at PO Box 651, Kent, CT 06757. 

For more info, email assistant@kenthistoricalsociety.org or call 860-927-4587. Register early as there may be a limit to the number of quilt appraisals that can be accommodated for each person.

Colonial Revival Songs at the Litchfield Historical Society

In anticipation of the Litchfield Historical Society's upcoming exhibition on the Colonial Revival, musician Rick Spencer will be at the Litchfield History Museum on Sunday, March 30 at 3:00 pm to present a specially created program of songs from this fascinating period in U.S. history.

Fueled by sentimentality for days gone by and a romanticized view of America's earliest years, Colonial Revival composers wrote songs that expressed this feeling of nostalgia for the past. Songs like "The Days When We Were Young" (Henry Clay Work, 1863) hearkened back to simpler pre-Civil War times. "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Samuel Woodworth, 1818) and "Long, Long Ago" (Thomas Haynes Bayly, 1833) were very popular songs that remembered the past fondly and were very popular in America.

Rick Spencer worked for 20 years as a chanteyman and interpreter at Mystic Seaport, forming the internationally known sea music group Forebitter with his fellow Seaport musicians. He has performed throughout the country and the world and is known for his work as a historian and researcher in the realm of folk music. Spencer accompanies himself with several instruments, including guitar, dulcimer, concertina, and banjo.

Currently a full-time musician, Spencer has also served as the director of the Dr. Ashbel Woodward Museum in Franklin, CT, and the site administrator of the Hempstead House in New London, CT.

This program is free for members and $5 for non-members; registration is required. To register, please call the Litchfield Historical Society at (860) 567-4501 or email registration@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org.

The Litchfield History Museum is located at 7 South St, Litchfield, CT. For more information about this or other programs, please see this website at www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org.

Winemaker's Tasting, Wine Pairings and More at Haight Brown Vineyard in Litchfield

Haight Brown Vineyard located on Chestnut Hill Rd. in the heart of Litchfield is offering three classes in late March that are a perfect pick up for this early spring season.

On March 29 for example, Haight-Brown Vineyard is hosting a Winemaker's Tasting from noon to 1:30 p.m. in their Vine Room.  This "Exclusive Winemaker's Tasting" will be hosted by Jacques van der Vyver, the Vineyard's new winemaker. He will be pairing the vineyards's wines with sweet and savory food items. Jacques will share his knowledge on the taste, smell and ultimately the enjoyment of HBV's delicious wine. It's a chance to meet and spend time with Jacques and have an opportunity to learn about Haight Vineyard wines and ask all those questions you always wanted to ask! Cost: $25.00. To register https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07e9089fenedea54e7&oseq=&c=&ch=

Also on March 29 and March 30 there will be a wine, cheese and chocolate pairing class at 1 p.m. HBV wines will be pared with a variety of cheese and chocolate and there will even be a HBV glass to take home!  This session is $35 by advance reservation to the Vineyard at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07e8zjw4ds1baea5b3&oseq=&c=&ch=

Looking ahead, on May 16 HBV is  hosting a presentation on the health benefits of Resveratol with Michelle J. Pouliot N.D. is a naturopathic physician specializing in women's health and integrative cardiovascular medicine. This presentation will focus on the naturopathic philosophy that our first medicine should be our food. The health benefits of flavonoids, which are the bright pigments of red, blue, purple and yellow in fruits and vegetables, and a non - flavonoid found in red wine, resveratrol, will be discussed. This is inspiring information about the healing power of nature. Event is $25 and is from 7 – 9:00 p.m. and includes a glass of HBV wine. To register: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07e8r645yy5268238d&oseq=&c=&ch=

For more information about Litchfield Hills, www.litchfieldhills.com

Mix it Up Exhibit at Sharon Historical Society in Litchfield Hills through Feb. 27

The second annual winter “Mix It Up” show hosted by the Sharon Historical Society in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut will juxtapose portraits by seven contemporary artists with five portraits from the museum collection by well-known folk artist Ammi Phillips (1788-1865). The exhibit at the Sharon Historical Society located on Main Street runs through February 27th.

Aung San Suu Kyi, by Robert A. Parker

This year’s “Mix It Up” exhibit is designed to challenge the viewer to visually travel from early nineteenth century folk portraits of local Sharon residents painted by Phillips to contemporary portraits painted by Sharon (and other local) artists.

Robert Louis Stevenson, by Duncan Hannah

Phillips, known locally by various monikers including the “Kent Limner”, painted in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut in the mid-1830s. By that time he was well established as an artist of some note, painting his first portraits probably as early as 1809/1810 in the area of Pittsfield, MA. Phillips painted at least five residents of the town of Sharon, Calvin and Phoebe Dowd Day, John Cotton Smith, and Ira and Melissa Williams. It is extremely likely that there are more Phillips’ portraits of Sharon residents in private collections, unsigned and/or unidentified. 

Midwinter Saint, by Richard T. Scott

In this exhibit all five Phillips portraits in the museum collection will be hung side-by-side with contemporary works by Duncan Hannah, Pieter Lefferts, Patty Mullins, Robert Andrew Parker, Warren Prindle, Richard T. Scott, and Peter Steiner. The exhibit hopes to challenge the viewer to evaluate the meaning of portraiture beyond the realm of “work of art”, and into the role of portrait as visual entrée into the historic record.

Phoebe Dowd Gay, by Ammi Phillip, ca. 1835

The Sharon Historical Society and Museum is located at 18 Main Street, Sharon, Connecticut 06069. For more information, call 860-364-5688 or visit http://www.sharonhist.org/.  

Museum Hours are Wednesday & Saturday from 10AM - 2PM, Thursday & Friday from 10AM - 4PM and by appointment.

For information on what to see and do in Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

Snowshoeing in Litchfield Hills CT

Bredeson Outdoor Adventures is offering a day of guided snowshoeing in Washington and Warren, Connecticut in the heart of the Litchfield Hills on February 9, 2014.  Participants will meet at 9:45 a.m. at Hopkins Vineyard located on Hopkins Road in New Preston overlooking beautiful Lake Waramaug.

A short shuttle ride will take participants to Macricostas Preserve, where you will explore the area's boardwalks and admire the dramatic view of Lake Waramaug. This 368-acre parcel of land, known as Meeker Swamp is a mix of meadowland, farmland, wooded ridge and wetlands with a pinnacle that overlooks Lake Waramaug. Bee Brook and the Shepaug River wends its way through this lovely preserve. 

The day will consist of intermediate snowshoeing or walking if no snow (approximately 4-6 miles total) in beautiful countryside under the leadership of a professional and enthusiastic guide.  No prior snowshoeing experience is necessary; this but tour is rated intermediate because snowshoeing 4-6 miles requires a fair amount of energy, unless there is little snow.  Due to the venue and optional winetasting, participants should be 21 years or older.

Participants will enjoy lunch and lake views upstairs in the warmth of the Hopkins Vineyard's Hayloft Wine Bar and an optional wine tasting downstairs by the fire. The Breseson Outdoor Adventures Tour Company will provide lunch and hot tea and cocoa, information on where to rent snowshoes (they have a few pair available for rent), brief instruction and a day of winter fun. Tips and lists for what to wear, bring and do to enjoy a safe cold weather outing are also part of the package.

After lunch, participants will snowshoe through the vineyard and on Lake Waramaug.  The cost of this outing is $63 per person.  For more information visit http://bredeson.com/trip-sign-up.  For information on Hopkins Vineyard www.hopkinsvineyard.com.

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com