Torrington's Five Points Gallery features three artists

Torrington's Five Points Gallery has a new show called Inside Out that will be running through May, 23. Inside Out features the work of  three artists: Mia Westerlund Roosen, Kim Sobel and Janice La Motta.

Mia Westerlund Roosen is an established artist who began her career in the late 1960s. Early on in her career she chose organic subject matter, unusual at a time when the industrial, geometric aesthetic of the Minimalist movement was dominant. For this show at Five Points Gallery, Westerlund Roosen will be exhibiting a variety of work chosen from the past 20 years. According to the artist, these works were created " using a variety of materials and processes that depict bodily systems, metamorphized architecture, and abstracted images of the feminine."

Kim Sobel is a painter who, in the last fifteen years, has exhibited widely in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. The combinations of marks, colors, and atmospheric areas on the canvas create paintings, which, for the artist, record a "never ending search to make sense of the world. 

The work of Connecticut artist Janice La Motta will be on display in the TDP Gallery at Five Points Gallery. La Motta's exhibition, "Chandeliers & Candelabrum" premiers a selection of drawings and paintings from this new series. According to the artist, in this body of work, she is "interested in the associative qualities of light and the artisanal ways to contain and deliver it." Small works on paper in ink, pencil and chine colle serve as studies for the examination of various chandelier armatures and take on a wide-ranging approach to the forms. In an accompanying group of paintings the artist explores the qualities of light, and the deeper, underlying reference to memory.

Five Points Gallery is located at 33 Main Street, Torrington, CT. Hours are Thursdays through Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. The gallery is also open by appointment. For more information please visit www.fivepointsgallery.org.

"A Prairie Refrain" at Carole Peck's Good News Cafe

Contemporary realist painter, Karl Hartman, will exhibit his new show titled "A Prairie Refrain" through January 27, 2015 at Carole Peck's Good News Cafe and Gallery, 694 Main Street South, Woodbury CT.

Hartman's paintings focuses on his memories of the prairie landscapes that he grew to love and his evolvement with these landscapes as a geologist in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. Hartman describes this part of the United States as spare, quiet and infinitely dynamic, beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. In contrast to his painting of the plains, he is also working on drawings of Bergen County, New Jersey that reflect the tightly packed, crowded suburban local domestic world of this area as well as its occupants and their imprint on it."

Karl Hartman was born in Billings Montana and grew up mostly in the plains states of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. He received his BS from the University of Oklahoma majoring in geology and minoring in art. He received his MFA in painting from the School of Visual Arts in New York where he studied with Sam Cady, Ursula von Rydingsvard and John Lees. He lives with his family in New Jersey and travels back to Oklahoma to see family, take photographs and sketch.

Karl shows at the Mary Ann Doran gallery in Tulsa, OK and the New Arts Gallery in Litchfield, CT. He has exhibited at the Kansas Museum of Fine Art in Wichita, KA, The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH, The Charles A. Wustum Museum, Racine, WI. He has also shown at The Grand Central Galleries, The Adam Baumgold Gallery, and the National Academy of Design in New York as well as the Yoyogi School of fine art in Tokyo Japan.

His most recent award was the New Jersey State Council for the Arts Fellowship for painting. For area information visit http://www.litchfieldhills.com.  For New Year or dinner reservations, contact Good News Cafe at http://www.good-news-cafe.com/

Small Works! at Carriage Barn Arts Center

The Small Works! art exhibition at the Carriage Barn Arts Center runs through December 21 and highlights small scale art. The work on view by 50 artists, mainly from Connecticut and New York, range from delicate drawings, paintings, and photographs to finely crafted sculpture and ceramics. The juror of the exhibition is Lee Findlay Potter, Director of the David Findlay Jr. Gallery in New York, which specializes American painting and sculpture from the late 19th century to the present. Lee is the fifth generation of art dealers in her family and her father David Findlay is a long-time resident of New Canaan.

Birds, by Isadora Lecuona Machado

Miniature works for the show were thoughtfully selected to provide a a historical and educational context for some of the contemporary art in the show. The history of miniature art goes back to the earliest periods of artistic production. The exhibition includes miniature manuscripts and Old Master prints, thereby tracing the evolution of such intimate gem-like works that require close examination. An early illuminated manuscript leaf exemplifies the painstaking attention to detail in medieval and early Renaissance devotional works. Two later examples of the highly sophisticated art of printmaking from the 1600s are Wenceslaus Hollar's masterful etchings. Hollar, a leading 17th century Bohemian printmaker, made a notable series of tiny etchings after the Renaissance sketches in the renowned collection of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who intended to catalogue his drawings.

These early examples of miniature art are juxtaposed with contemporary works to provide a deeper understanding of their changing functions and meanings over time. The painting on an antique book cover by New York artist Holland Cunningham is contrasted with an early printed mathematical manuscript dated 1734 that has tiny decorative illustrations. Italian Renaissance paintings provide the inspiration for David Barnett's assemblages in shadow boxes, notably the Madonna whose head with a golden halo is placed on a body made up of mechanical parts. Another re-interpretation of a Renaissance painting is Isadora Machado's intricate pen drawing of the Mona Lisa. Machado's elaborate and patterned drawings of moths and birds have the luminescent and decorative quality of early stained glass windows. Robbii Wessen's assemblages of found organic and mechanical elements recall the imaginative objects from Renaissance cabinets of curiosity. Other such fanciful creations include the ceramic Pot Heads by Connie Nichols, literally tiny pots with whimsical heads on top.

The exhibition transitions to a group of abstract works, beginning with some examples of the recently deceased Sal Sirugo (1920-2013), who has been called "a hidden treasure of the Abstract Expressionist movement". Sirugo began creating highly original works in the late 1940s, but while many of his Abstract Expressionist contemporaries worked on huge canvases, he preferred to work in more modest dimensions. His miniature ink drawings on paper have a mysterious, meditative quality that draw the viewer into his unique way of seeing.

To accompany this show, there will be a Children's Art Workshop led by Nancy Scranton on December 7 and 14. The Gallery hours are Wed.-Sat., 10 am - 3 pm; Sunday, 1 - 5 pm. The gallery is located in Waveny Park, New Canaan. For more information, visit www.carriagebarn.org

Beauty and Ruin: Broken Landscapes, Lost Symbols at the Silvermine Art Center

Beauty and Ruin:  Broken Landscapes, Lost Symbols is the name of the show at the Silvermine Art Center located on 1037 Silvermine Road in New Cannan that runs through December 23.  The focus of the show is the work of three artists that explore three themes in photography, sculpture, and a site-dependent work that includes video as a primary element.

 “The Hand of Man,” J Henry Fair - J Henry Fair’s stunning abstract compositions are full of organic forms and graphic patterns:  plumes, branches, rivulets, as well as grids and softened geometric forms.  But in Fair’s large-scale photographs, beauty and horror coexist.  Fair’s subject in “The Hand of Man” is a damaged environment: de-forested landscapes, polluted waterways, hydraulic fracturing sites, and waste from refinery operations and other industrial practices.  His goal is to “produce beautiful images that stimulate an aesthetic response, then curiosity, then personal involvement.”

 “Flying over these sites is the only way to see things,” Fair has said.  “The aerial perspective is inherently intriguing to land-based animals.”  It is the aerial view that is his particular angle of vision—the distant view, not of the peaceful blue planet, but of the compromised landscape of a world that even in the digital era is still predominantly industrial.

 J Henry Fair’s photography has been the subject of solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. and in Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands.  His work has been featured or reviewed in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Smithsonian Magazine, New York Magazine, Harper’s, and National Geographic.  He has served as an artist-in-residence at Swarthmore, Dartmouth, Colorado College, and the Cooper Union, and his work is in a number of permanent collections including the Cooper Union and Dartmouth’s Hood Museum. Fair has been a member of the SIlvermine Guild of Artists since 2011.

J Henry Fair       Plume of foam in bauxite waste from aluminum refinery       Darrow, Louisiana

 “Neo-Archaism,” Carlos Davila- Carlos Davila creates a visual landscape that abstracts the symbols and forms of ancient cultures and combines them with those of advanced technology and modern industry.  He explores the relationship between the modern, highly mechanized age that we live in and a totemic, stylized symbolism of a variety of ancient cultures from Egypt, South America, and Africa. 

Davila abstracts line, form, and color to create sculptures, three-dimensional wall pieces, and large-scale diptychs and triptychs.  His mechanical and industrial elements coalesce into a layered, three-dimensional geometry that is textural and drenched in brilliant color. His is a figurative landscape at once familiar and alien.

After earning his MFA, Davila participated in the reconstruction of the ancient city of Chan Chan, Peru.  His work at this Pre-Columbian archaeological dig led to a fascination with ancient and lost cultures, and the experience profoundly affected the course of his work.

Carlos Davila’s art has been the subject of solo exhibitions from Lima, Santiago, and Bogota to New York, Boston, and Miami.  He has work in the permanent collections of Yale University’s Richard Brown Baker Collection, the National Arts Club in New York City, the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris, and dozens of international corporations. 

Born and educated in Lima, Peru, he lived for many years in New York City.  He currently lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and maintains a studio in a loft in Bridgeport.  He has been a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists since 2012.

 “What’s Left,” June Ahrens- In her recent work, June Ahrens has explored repurposed and broken glass as material and metaphor.  “What’s Left” is a new turn for Ahrens—a unified environment made up of a video surrounded by blue walls that are layered with a combination of dried pigment mixed with salt.  This site-dependent piece, created for the Hays Gallery at the Silvermine Arts Center, evokes loss and fragility while channeling light through a landscape of broken glass.

The video serves as the primary element in the composition and contains many of the materials used in her environment. The integration of materials and images (including images of a human face and hands) invites the viewer to explore and embrace the residue of lives.  Salt and glass enhance the imperfections of the walls, which become a metaphor for the imperfections in each of us.  The surface partially hides some of the scarring but salt and pigment reveal it in a new way.  Repurposed broken glass (clear or blue) is also part of the installation—random patterns of fallen shards will pool and reflect danger, pain, and vulnerability.

June Ahrens’s work has been exhibited at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City; at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland; in “Strong Women Artists,” a group exhibit in Matera, Italy; and in many other exhibitions throughout the U.S.  She was nominated for a 2012 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and was a recipient of a grant from the NEA.  She was honored by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism as a Distinguished Advocate for the Arts and as an Individual Artist.  She lives in New Canaan, Connecticut, and has been a member of the Silvermine Guild since 1993.

Still from Video by Ahren

Silvermine Arts Center is one of the oldest artist communities in the United States. Its five-­ acre campus in New Canaan, Connecticut, consists of a nationally renowned artist guild, an award-­winning school of art offering classes for all ages, an arts and fine crafts shop, and a gallery offering over twenty contemporary and historic exhibitions annually. Silvermine is a non-­profit organization that also offers an educational outreach program, Art Partners, and hosts lectures, performances, film screenings, and special events.

Gallery Hours: Silvermine Galleries are open Wednesday through Saturday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (203) 966-­9700 ext. 20 or visit the website: www.silvermineart.org.

Clare Romano & John Ross: 70 Years of Printmaking at Center for Contemporary Printmaking

The fall exhibition, featuring a sampling from the extensive collection of original prints by Clare Romano and John Ross,  at The Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP), 299 West Ave., in Mathews Park, Norwalk, runs through Sunday, December 14, 2014.

Clare Romano, "Silver Canyon"

Gallery visitors have the opportunity to view original prints made by these preeminent printmaking artists, educators, and authors—husband and wife, each with their own acclaimed individual careers—who have made the fine art of printmaking, with a particular emphasis on the art of the collagraph, their life's work.

Clare Romano and John Ross had a major influence on the art printmaking and printmaking students. For many, their text, "The Complete Printmaker", represented the next wave in printmaking. The exhibition showcases landscapes and cityscapes, lithographs, etchings, silkscreens, woodcuts, letterpress and, of course, collagraphs. Visitors will discover novel and innovative images using silk aquatint, asymmetrically cut plates, and the combination of intaglio and relief on the same plate.

John Ross, "Duomo

The Center has scheduled an Artists Talk and Book Signing with John and Tim Ross for December 10 from 7 to 8:30 pm.  Clare Romano and John Ross wrote and illustrated a number of books together, the first entitled Manhattan Island (1957) and the most important publication, The Complete Printmaker, originally published in 1972 is now in its second edition with Artist/Printmaker and Educator Tim Ross joining his parents as co-author. The Complete Printmaker is still used as a printmaking text in college classrooms today. 

Normal hours are Tuesday through Sunday 9 am to 5 pm. The gallery is closed on Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and over the Thanksgiving Day weekend. Admission is free, and the gallery is handicapped accessible. For more information visit http://www.contemprints.org.

For information on Fairfield County visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

By Land and Sea and Air - paintings, drawings and etchings

The David Hunt Library  located bucolic village of Falls Village in the Litchfield Hills on 63 Main Street is hosting an art exhibition featuring the work of Robert Andrew Parker through October 10. 

The poet Marianne Moore said, "Robert Andrew Parker is one of the most accurate and at the same time most unliteral of painters. He combines the mystical and the actual, working both in an abstract and in a realistic way." Ms. Moore's is an apt description of Parker's recent work in this exhibit including serial images of an Avro Bison aircraft combining print and watercolor and a series of ships in the far distance, possibly warships. These are accompanied by landscapes, images of animals, and water conveying an overall sense of movement and adventure.

Besides being a foremost American artist, illustrator, and printmaker, Parker is also a writer and a working musician. Bob continues to perform with his band mates locally at the Interlaken Inn and other spots.

Parker's artworks have appeared in the pages of The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Esquire just to name a few. His drawings and paintings have accompanied the writings of Franz Kafka, Vladimir Nabokov, W. H. Auden, and Marianne Moore. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Morgan Library and Museum, and private collections throughout the world. Most recently, Parker was the subject of a Century Masters career retrospective at The Century Association in New York.

For more information www.litchfieldhills.com and www.huntlibrary.org

Contemporary Crafts Gallery presents exhibition of original prints from around the world

Revel in a professional display of recent works by local national and international printmakers; landscapes, portraits, animals, botanicals, representational and abstract original artwork, created by hand using traditional and contemporary printmaking methods. Over 210 diverse images, each print one-foot square, are on view this summer at the 4^th Biennial Footprint International Exhibition, Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP), 299 West Ave., in Mathews Park, Norwalk, Connecticut 06850, www.contemprints.org, 203-899-7999.

Waving Goodbye

The call for entries for the “Footprint International” exhibition is sent all over the world, to printmaking ateliers, gallerys, schools and individuals, at least 6 months before the exhibit opens. A juror is designated to reviews the original artworks after they arrive at the gallery, to select works for inclusion in the exhibit and award prizes. The Biennial Footprint International Exhibition is held on even-numbered years, alternating with the Biennial International Miniature Print Exhibition, which is held on odd-numbered years.

Cavemen/Kaliedoscope

The exhibition runs  through Sunday, August 31, 2014 and the hours are Monday through Saturday 9 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, 12 to 5 pm. The Center is closed on July 4. Admission is free, and the gallery is handicapped accessible.  This biennial exhibition is an opportunity for visitors to acquaint themselves with current trends in the art of the original print from around the world. All artwork is for sale. The “footprint” in the exhibition title refers to the size of the artwork on display; each image is a one-foot square print.

The Great Expectation

Prize Winners 

Juror Elisabeth Hodermarsky, Sutphin Family Senior Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, Photographs at the Yale University Art Gallery awarded Best in Show to Miriam Rudolph, (Minnesota) for her artworks, Waving Goodbye, 2012, intaglio/ chine colle/hand coloring, and Return, 2012, intaglio /chine colle. Elisabeth awarded two Juror Prizes: to Anne Desmet (United Kingdom) for Cavemen/Kaliedoscope, 2014, lithograph/engraving/ collage, and Changing Perspectives – Homage to Piero della Francesca, 2014, engraving/ collage; and to Josef Werner (Germany) for The Silence, 2014, etching/drypoint/embossing and The Great Expectation, 2014, etching/drypoint/embossing.

Two Connecticut artists, both CCP members, received Honorable Mentions: DeAnn Prosia (Newtown,) and Karen Kalkstein (Stamford). In addition, the juror awarded Honorable Mentions to 11 other artists including: Daniel Chiaccio, Kate Higley (New Hampshire);  Katerine Kyselica, Sigita R Pranevicius (New York); Ellen Price (Ohio); Daniela Zekina (Canada); Christa Manz-Dewald (Germany); Aoiffe Layton, Bernadette Madden (Ireland); Adam Czech (Poland); and Kirsty Olivier (South Africa).

Participating Artists

Fairfield and New Haven Counties Well Represented by Area Artists
Other Connecticut artists in the exhibition include: Karen Vogel (Darien); Susan Newbold (Fairfield); Nomi Silverman (Glenville); Marian "Bing” Bingham (Greenwich); Anita Soos (Guilford); Thomas Stavovy (Hamden); Cynthia MacCollum (New Canaan); Oi Fortin, Evie Lindemann, Liz Pagano (New Haven); Binnie Birstein, Karen Brussat Butler, Katharine Draper (Norwalk); Allison Meyler (Ridgefield); Betty Ball, Hanneke Goedkoop, Mindy Green (Rowayton); Lou Hicks (Stamford); Kathleen DeMeo (Wallingford); Brenda Giegerich, Ruth Kalla Ungerer, Cecilia Moy Fradet (Westport); Renee Santhouse (Wilton); Margot K Rocklen (Woodbridge); and Karen Sorensen (Woodbury).

National and International Artists in the Exhibition
Stateside. In the USA, art by other printmakers from New York State towns and cities were by far the largest group, including: RM Gallimari (Astoria); Jane Cooper (Katonah); Christine S. Aaron, Ellen Lazarus, Annette Lieblein (Larchmont); Katharine Dufault, Lynne Lederman (Mamaroneck); Richard Sloat, (New York, New York); Lenny Librizzi (Staten Island); Susan Miller (Sparrow Bush); and Mitchell Visoky (White Plains). Printmakers from other states included: Liz Lyons Friedman (California); Dakota Nanton (Colorado); Sal Sidner (Florida); Karl LeClair (Idaho); Christine Beneman, Scott Schnepf (Maine); Steven Matthews (Maryland); Paula DeSimone, Cheryl Sutton Adams (Massachusetts); Jean Allemeir Boot, Andrew Jagniecki (Michigan); Rachele Unter (New Jersey); Joan Potkay (New Mexico); Anne Cushman (Ohio); Carrie O'Coyle (Oregon); and Sergey Zlotnikov (Pennsylvania).

Overseas. International artists also included a good showing from our neighbors in Canada: Marie
Ange-Brassard, Daemon Baldwin, Peter Barron, Lysandre Donaldson, Ingeborg Jurgensen Hiscox, Louise Simard, Robin Smith Peck; and Cleo Wilkinson (Australia); Savina Montovska, Roland Shneevays (Bulgaria); Gerda Muehl, Marianne Riss (Germany); Aidan Flanagan, Joan Gleeson, Paula Pohli (Ireland); Adiana Lucaciu (Romania); Angus Buchanan, Gervasio Robles, Michele Rolstone (South Africa); Raul Ceville (Italy); Kristina Norvilaite (Lithuania); Toshinori Tanuma (Japan); Bo Cronqvist (Sweden); and Neala Glass (New Zealand).

Bob Gregson: Archi/Abstracts at New Canaan's Gores Pavilion

This summer and fall, the New Canaan Historical Society is presenting the photography of Bob Gregson entitled Archi/Abstracts at the Gores Pavilion in Irwin Park located on 848 Weed Street in New Canaan Connecticut.

Bob is an artist who has a passion for architecture and modern design. The photographs in this exhibit are details of familiar buildings by well-known architects. Originally taken to document his trips to architectural icons, these photos are shot on the run and thus have a fresh and immediate look to them. As Gregson explains, "It was not necessary to document the buildings as much as to capture a spontaneous moment that expressed, in a simple detail, the heart and spirit of my experience." Since these are done on the fly the essence of the building needs to be sized up quickly.

When viewing the exhibition it is clear that there is a focus on the details and characteristics that embody the personality of each building. The  translation from a  three dimensional experience to a flat image is not easy to achieve but these photographs show great skill in doing this.

Bob Gregson received a B.F.A. from the Hartford Art School and an M.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago. His work ranges from large-scale participatory pieces to drawing and photography. He has exhibited nationally as well as his home state of Connecticut. He is a Silvermine Guild Artist in New Canaan, Connecticut and is the creative director of the Connecticut Office of Culture & Tourism.

The Gores Pavilion is located in Irwin Park, New Canaan. The exhibit runs through November 7, 2014. The Gores Pavilion is open from Friday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., or by appointment; call 203-966-1776. Admission is free to Society members and $5 for non-members.

Lost and Found Circus Exhibit at Bridgeport's PT Barnum Museum

The Barnum Museum is featuring an amazingly original display, Lost and  Found Circus: A Creative Balancing Act by Bridgeport artist Susan Tabachnick through August 30.

The exhibition  features a circus-themed presentation of small sculptures created with found objects, many of them  incorporating old industrial parts and small tools. The components are not altered in any way, but are  assembled into whimsical sculptures suggestive of the lively energy and humor that characterizes the  circus. The assemblages give “new life” to items originally made for other purposes. Tabachnick  never forces the unions and she doesn’t weld or glue the pieces together; they must fit or balance.

Each of Tabachnick's creations in this exhibition begins with a particular piece of salvaged material to
which she is attracted. The sculptures often evolve as a balancing act, as Tabachnick experiments
with finding just the right parts, using her own fluid and flexible approach to making art. All of the
work in the show is assembled this way; none of the components are permanently affixed. Like a real
circus, the components can readily be disassembled and transported to a new venue, and if the artist
chooses, the found objects can come together in new ways.

"The Lost and Found Circus is always a work in progress," explained Tabachnick, "an infinitely
creative and organic assemblage of salvaged pieces that invites people to see new possibilities. What
is most enjoyable to me are the reactions to my work, and the different references and perceptions
that viewers bring to it. I never intended to make a circus. The pieces came together serendipitously,
each with its own eccentric personality, not dissimilar to that of traditional circus characters. Over the
years, the theme kept percolating to the point where there is now a troupe."

The Barnum Museum is located on 820 Main Street, Bridgeport in the People’s United Bank
Gallery. The entrance to the museum is located at the back of the historic building and the hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  For more information on the PT Barnum Museum, call 203-331-1104 ext.100, M-F from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or visit www.barnummuseumexhibitions.org.

For information on Fairfield County visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

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.