The Art of Advertising to Open at the Litchfield History Museum

Taking a walk through Litchfield’s center you can’t help but notice the businesses lining West Street. Brightly colored window displays catch your eye. Perhaps you smell lunch being served in a nearby restaurant. To distinguish themselves from each other, each business has a sign hanging outside the door.

While many things have changed over the past two hundred years, one thing has remained the same: Litchfield is dotted with signs. Opening on Saturday, April 13, the Litchfield Historical Society’s new exhibition, The Art of Advertising: Signs around Town, will explore these symbols that mark the retailers, museums, schools, and establishments that make up the community. These beautifully crafted objects let us know what can be found behind each door, and each has something to reveal about the establishments that have helped create this charming community.

Visitors and residents alike will enjoy this new exhibit of 19th- and 20th- century signs from the museum collection while learning about the businesses that helped shape Litchfield’s past. This exhibit will be on view through the end of June, 2013.

The Litchfield History Museum is located at 7 South Street, Litchfield, CT. The History Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, and Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 pm. For more information, please call (860) 567-4501 or see www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.orgwww.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org. 

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com.

The Artist in Venice: at Darren Winston, Bookseller

On Saturday, April 6, from 2 to 4 p.m., bookseller and gallerist Darren Winston located in Sharon Connecticut in the Litchfield Hills  will host a reading and book-signing by Adam Van Doren to celebrate the publication of The Artist in Venice, at Darren Winston, Bookseller (81 Main Street, Sharon, Connecticut). A selection of paintings by Van Doren, including pieces featured in the book, will be on display from April 2–28.

Van Doren’s new book showcases not only his virtuosity as a painter but also his writing talent. He first went to Venice to paint in 1986, to escape the “barren and cheerless” New York winter. He left as an architecture student and came back a painter—and “Venice was responsible.” The Artist in Venice presents twenty-five glorious watercolor paintings of that city, accompanied by sketches, maps, and the artist’s insightful narrative and history.

In the introduction to the book, the writer Simon Winchester observes: “Adam Van Doren has a way with light. His painterly calling-card is, in its essence, illumination. It is opalescence, iridescence, brilliance.”

Publisher’s Weekly says of the book: “Architect and artist Van Doren offers a love letter to Venice in this elegant and slender volume, and he sings his praise to the city through majestic prose and 25 beautiful watercolor paintings.”

Adam Van Doren was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1962 and is of the distinguished New York literary and artistic family that includes his grandfather Mark Van Doren—the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet and celebrated Columbia professor—and his great-uncle Carl Van Doren, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian. His great-aunt Irita Van Doren was the editor of the Books section of The Herald Tribune for forty years, and his grandmother Dorothy Van Doren was a novelist and editor at The Nation. His mother is a painter and was integral in cultivating his artistic sensibilities.

Van Doren studied at Columbia University and the National Academy of Design. He has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., among other institutions, and his work is included in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Princeton University Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), the Yale University Art Gallery, The Addison Gallery of American Art, and The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of American Art, among others. Van Doren has been a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome and an instructor at the Institute of Classical Architecture in New York. He is an Associate Fellow and former Lustman Fund Lecturer at Yale University. He maintains a studio in Manhattan, where he exhibits annually.

Although he was raised in New York, Van Doren and his family have deep connections to the Litchfield Hills in northwest Connecticut. While growing up he spent summers in Cornwall Hollow on the old farm owned by his grandparents, and now he splits his time between that property (in a new house he designed and had built there) and his home in Manhattan. In a recent interview he remembered stories of how his grandfather and uncle had to travel from Manhattan for five hours in a Model-T to reach the farm in Connecticut. “I can only imagine what it was like,” he said. “It might have meant they didn’t come up too often. They went for the summer and stayed there.” Van Doren returns to Darren Winston, Bookseller following the bookstore-gallery’s popular October 2011 exhibit of his paintings, which garnered favorable coverage in The New York Times.

For more information about Darren Winston, Bookseller, please call (860) 364-1890 or e-mail darrenwinston@gmail.com. The shop’s hours are Tuesday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment, and the website is www.darrenwinstonbookseller.com. For area information www.litchfieldhills.com.

Take a Walk Through the Dinosaur Age at The Bruce Museum

Since the first paleontological expedition to Mongolia by Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History in the 1920s, the allure of discovering exotic Asian dinosaurs has been the dream of every paleontologist. Subsequently, dinosaurs from China have been unearthed revealing their relationships to birds as evidenced by the presence of feathers together with scales. Several of the most spectacular of these dinosaurs are coming to the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, and will continue through April 21, 2013.

Chinasaurs: Dinosaur Discoveries from China welcomes visitors to walk among the skeletons, skulls, nests and eggs of more than a dozen of these rare Asian dinosaurs. From the huge 32-foot long, meat-eating Yangchuanosaurus to the gazelle-sized plant eaters such as Psittacosaurus, the prehistoric fossils of the Far East provide an exciting experience for dinosaur enthusiasts.

Skeletons of all sizes from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods tell the tale of dinosaur diversification and shifting continents. Maps, video and activity tables help visitors of all ages learn more about the specimens on view. One display features a Jurassic battle between the plated, plant-eating Tuojiangosaurus with a spiked tail and the large meat-eating Monolophosaurus with teeth like steak knives. The long tail feathers and fused bones of Confusiusornis indicate that it was an early precursor to birds, and evidence suggests that male and female looked different, like many birds today.

Chinasaurs offers a glimpse of the unprecedented evolution of dinosaurs and their dominance over the world for more than 155 million years.

About the Bruce Museum

Explore Art and Science at the Bruce Museum, located at One Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students up to 22 years, $6 for seniors and free for members and children under 5 years. Individual admission is free on Tuesday. Free on-site parking is available and the Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For additional information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376 or visit the website at www.brucemuseum.org .

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

Greenwich Audubon Events

Slowly in March winter begins to withdraw and signs of spring slowly show themselves.  There is no better place than to experience the signs of spring than at the Greenwich Audubon Center in Greenwich Connecticut.

On Saturday, March 2 from 10 a.m. – 11 a., the Audubon is hosting a program on Wheat and Gluten. Rachel Khanna will return to Audubon Greenwich to talk about what's going on with wheat and gluten in our foods and how it affects our health. Join her for a one-hour session to learn about these ingredients and get the right information. $10. Space limited. RSVP toRakhanna@optonline.net.  Also on March 2 there is a program on the Early Signs of Spring from 1:30- 3 p.m.   Join Ted Gilman for fun and early spring natural history during a hike down the Discovery Trail, up to Mead Lake and back to the Center.  This is for ages 5 & up.  The walk is on easy to moderate terrain. RSVP to Ted at 203-869-5272 x230.

On Saturday, March 9^th from 1 – 2 p.m. there is a family bird watching event where participants will review winter birds, bird feeding and first returning migrants. Help conduct our weekly ‘Project FeederWatch’ bird count and help report these results via the Internet to Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. For ages 5 & up. RSVP to Ted at 203-869-5272 x230. Also on the 9^th there will be a new art gallery exhibit titled New England Bird Watercolors by J. J. Audubon 

Join art expert Joel Oppenheimer and other guest speakers from 6:00-8:00 pm to learn about Audubon’s field work in New England and to learn natural history notes about the species on display. The gallery   is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9-00 am-5:00 pm and Noon to 5:00 pm on Sunday.  There is no charge for the reception but donations accepted at the door. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served. RSVP requested to greenwichcenter@audubon.org or 203-869-5272 x239.

On Saturday March 16 from 2 – 3:30 p.m. families can learn how to make a nestbox in order to host bird families in your own yard or neighborhood by providing nestboxes for various species of birds. Ted Gilman will show a variety of nestboxes and the birds, which use them, as well as discuss their placement and maintenance. Families wishing to build their own nest box can pre-order a kit through the Audubon Nature Store or select from a variety of pre-assembled boxes in the store. For ages 5 & up. RSVP to Ted at 203-869-5272 x230 to attend and/or order nestbox kits. Also on March 16 there is a Woodcock watch from 6:45 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.  Participants will help staff search for one of the rites of spring as we watch and listen for the crepuscular calls and aerial performance of these woodland sandpiper relatives. Participants will also listen for any newly emerged Spring Peeper tree frogs. Event for ages 6 & up. RSVP to Ted at 203-869-5272 x230.

On March 30 from 1 p.m. – 3:30 there is a Birding 101 Workshop: Bird Watching Basics for Adults.  This is an introduction to ornithology and the tools/skills used in bird study. Enjoy a walk; learn how to use binoculars, guides, and other resources that make birding so much fun. Ideal for adults and interested youth. $12 adults; No Charge for youth. RSVP required to Ted at 203-869-5272 x230.

Audubon Connecticut and Audubon Greenwich is located on 613 Riversville Rd. in Greenwich and can be reached by calling 203-869-5272 or visiting http://greenwich.audubon.org.

For area information www.visitfairfieldct.com.

A Visual Spectrum Of Exhibits Opens At Silvermine Arts Center In February

Silvermine Arts Center, located in New Canaan, CT will be opening a new set of exhibits February 24th, ranging from the dazzling abstractions of Sharon Cavagnolo to the visually complex installation by Mary Jo McGonagle. There is also the hyper-real figurative paintings of Anca Pedvisocar and the aptly named “Human Touch” figurative print group show featuring Karen Butler, Helen Cantrell, Alanna Fagan, Nancy Lasar and Nomi Silverman. The show runs through April 5th. All are welcomed to the opening reception on Sunday, February 24th 2:00pm – 4:00pm.

The Question

In her exhibit, “New Paradigms,” artist Sharon Cavagnolo deals with chaos and the human need to control and come to terms with it. For the artist, a gestural or impulsive movement often serves as the beginning of an idea for a painting, with subsequent layers imparting balance, line, color and pattern. The creation of the ‘whole’ represents a new place to be.

“(Dis)connect” is the new site specific installation by Silvermine Guild Artist, Mary Jo McGonagle. Combining video and signature wall coverings and paintings, the installation reflects her fascination with how relationships take place in our everyday lives, hovering between humor and desperation. Time-based media in conjunction with painting creates the overall environment. McGonagle’s work is a multi-disciplinary exploration of images and narratives of sublimated family dynamics and the idea of the suburban home as an environment of contradictions. . In her exhibit, she uses decorative wallpapers, patterning and colorful language to conceal contemporary phrases. The phrases are camouflaged within the wallpaper patterns. There is an element of discovery, revealing our innermost feelings which deal with the unspoken, “not so nice,” thoughts that we all share.

The Elements

Anca Pedvisocar’s exhibit “Take 2” is about second chances given to forgotten moments in forgotten lives of forgotten people, to be re-lived in a different way by people of our time. For this artist, the most difficult part in her work is choosing what to do next and why. Anca will look over the many black & white snap shots she has collected of the last century before choosing the most significant “insignificant” moment in time worth painting. The central theme of Pedvisocar’s paintings is a mixture of tension and solitude that seems to bring people together, while simultaneously pulling them apart. This conflict makes itself visually apparent in people’s most inconsequential and mundane actions and postures, glossing their figures with an unmistakable varnish that makes them impervious to one another and to themselves. The treatment of the figures in her paintings are restrained, as in a black and white movie, while exalting the color of the background, evoking the presence of an old, skipping soundtrack and a narrator’s voice starting to tell their 

story.

Curtain Call

The Guild group exhibition, “The Human Touch: Five Printmakers,” showcases new figurative works by Silvermine members Karen Brussat Butler, Helen Cantrell, Alanna Fagan, Nancy Lasar and Nomi Silverman. The five artists share a love of printmaking, exploring contemporary interpretations of the figure in a variety of print techniques including woodcut, intaglio, lithography and other media.

For more information on these exhibits and other events at the Silvermine Arts Center, please visit www.silvermineart.org or call 203-966-9700 ext. 20.  For area information visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.