Category: Connecticut Travel

The Washington Art Association & Gallery has announced “Ruth Miller and Andrew Forge”, a comprehensive exhibition bringing together paintings and drawings from their widely acclaimed careers.

Ruth Miller, a painter of still life and landscape, lives and works in Washington Depot, Connecticut. Although working occasionally from memory, the artist paints mostly from observation. For her no two cabbages, no two pitchers are alike; each object has its unique and formal presence, with attention paid to the way forms press against each other and shape the space around them.

Through her keenly observed drawing and sensuous expressive brushwork, her intimate portraits of simple domestic vessels along with fruits and vegetables are infused with life and radiant color which reveal their unique personalities. Forms and shapes are simultaneously specific and suggested; colors are faded and brilliant, capturing and abbreviating details creating an intoxicating atmosphere of simplicity and beauty.

Andrew Forge, born in England, spent his early career in London. In the 1970’s, he married the painter Ruth Millerand moved to the United States, where he continued painting, writing and teaching. For over two decades he served as dean and professor at the Yale University School of Art.
The paintings of Forge “stand as poetic meditations on the process of perception,” wrote Lisa Russell in 2001. He worked in dense but nuanced arrangements of dots, derived from close observation of ”places, seasons, times of day, conditions of light.” The dots usually cannot be read as specific imagery, but sometimes they hover on the edge of representation, evoking trees, a pond or other aspects of nature. These paintings were made, it seems, to be soaked up rather than simply looked at. Their colors resonate in the mind, poetically echoing moods of nature.

Andrew Forge is also celebrated as a writer on art. He is best known for his writings on Degas, Monet, Manet, Klee and Rauschenberg.
Ruth Miller and Andrew Forge will begin on Saturday, July 1 and run through Saturday, August 5, 2017. An opening reception will be held on May 6 from 4:00- 6:00PM. Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat, 10 am – 5 pm.

For more information, please contact the Washington Art Association & Gallery by telephone at 860.868.2878 www.washingtonartassociation.org

The Westport Historical Society, located on 25 Avery Place in the center of Westport is presenting an art show, Magical Thinking through September 2. This exhibit showcases the work of Westport artist Trace Burroughs, who sold over 300 of his abstract expressionistic paintings by age 15. One of Burroughs’s early works is part of the Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection, alongside works by internationally renowned artists including Picasso, Matisse, Calder, Motherwell, and others. His new collection of digital art is exhibited in galleries and art shows throughout Fairfield County

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“The subject matter in my new show, ‘Magical Thinking,’ is varied in theme and style,” Burroughs says. “The works are created utilizing digital art, retouching, and enhancement, and are then composited to create a single image. I try to create each work so that it is different from the others in the way it elicits a response from the viewer. In general, I try to create art that engages the mind and the eye, and that is thought-provoking, visually appealing, and sometimes with a mystical nuance.”

A former drummer with the two popular Westport bands, The Rogues and Styx, Burroughs broke the Guinness World Record for marathon drum soloing in his 20s, garnering national attention and an interview with David Frost. Since then, in addition to creating art, he has worked as an author, radio-show host, and animator whose work has been shown on television and in film. Learn more about Trace Burroughs and his work at traceburroughs.com/Artworks.com.

The Housatonic Museum of Art located on 900 Lafayette Blvd. in Bridgeport is hosting a new show featuring the work of painter Sherri Wolfgang from June 1 – July 31. There will be an opening reception on June 15 from 5:30 p.m. -8 p.m. in the Burt Chernow Galleriese.

Wolfgang is known for her figurative works which utilize Renaissance painting traditions in combination with painting techniques developed by the Dutch Masters. Historically, Wolfgang portrayed her nude figures as examinations of the various female archetypes found in visual culture, with a caricatured sexuality and affected emotions. She applies different subject matter and genres that she has passionately embraced, such as anatomy and figure drawing, Expressionism, and portraiture with the interplay of light, color, and texture.

All of Wolfgang’s recent work has been done with a wide variety of media, including charcoal, Conte’ crayon, graphite, oil and resins on canvas, paper, and wood. This series includes portraits of a male dancer using 16th Century Mannerist aesthetics, while her upcoming series will combine Renaissance sensibilities with contemporary cultural figures

The Gallery is open June – July – August, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday evening until 7 p.m. The gallery is closed on Saturday and Sunday in summer. To sign up for a monthly newsletter on things to do and see, special events and travel tips in Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.litchfieldhills.com or www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

There is nothing that says summer and romance like a sunset cruise through Norwalk Harbor to Sheffield Island on the 45 ft. C.J. Toth catamaran for a relaxing two hour cruise. Along the way you will see the beautiful coastline of Norwalk and seabirds as you head out into Long Island Sound. This season the sunset cruises begin on June 23 and run every Friday evening through August 25.

Don’t forget to bring your camera and binoculars, snacks and a beverage. During this unforgettable adventure tour of the outer reaches of Norwalk Harbor you will see unique views of the city, surrounding waterways and picturesque Islands.
Boat Boarding begins at 6:15 p.m. and the vessel sets sail at 6:30 p.m. and returns to the dock at 8:30 p.m. Although walk-up tickets are sold, it is best to reserve your tickets in advance to avoid disappointment. The U.S. Coast Guard sets a limit of 49 passengers on board.

The limited number of people on this cruise adds to the intimate feel of this very special tour.
This year the Seaport Association is offering a dinner package after the cruise for an additional $35 at Sono Seaport Seafood that is in easy walking distance of the dock. Parking is best at the Maritime Garage.

For a free monthly newsletter on things to do and see and travel tips on Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

It is hard to resist a glass of fine wine in a beautiful garden on a perfect summer evening. You can expect that and more at The Glebe House Museum’s festive garden party, Wine & Roses in the Gertrude Jekyll Garden on Hollow Road in Woodbury on Saturday, July 15 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm. Surrounded by bursts of summer flowers in the garden, bouquets of roses and live music, guests can sample Gertrude’s Garden, a white wine named for Gertrude Jekyll and bottled by Walker Road Vineyards in Woodbury. Hors d’oeuvres and other wine will also be served. There will be a silent auction of very special items chosen for this event. The museum will be open for the evening. Tickets for the garden party are $25.00 per person and all proceeds will support the Glebe House Museum & Gertrude Jekyll Garden.

Set in the picturesque Litchfield Hills in historic Woodbury’s village center, the museum welcomes visitors for a glimpse of Revolutionary War era Connecticut. The simple but elegant 18th century farmhouse is furnished as the home of the Reverend John Rutgers Marshall, his wife Sarah, their nine children and three slaves who lived in the “glebe” during the turmoil of the American War for Independence. The Glebe House was restored in 1923 under the direction of Henry Watson Kent, pioneer of early American decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. One of the early historic house museums in the country, The Glebe House opened its doors to the public in 1925, and is celebrating its 92nd anniversary this season.

In 1926, the famed English horticultural designer and writer, Gertrude Jekyll, was commissioned to plan an “old fashioned” garden to enhance the newly created museum. Ms. Jekyll had a profound influence on modern garden design and is widely considered the greatest gardener of the 20th century. Although a small garden, when compared with the 400 more elaborate designs she completed in England and on the Continent, the Glebe House garden includes 600 feet of classic English style mixed border with sweeps of red, yellow and gold and cool waves of lavender and blue hues, and foundation plantings. It is the only remaining example of her work in the United States today. The garden is open during daylight hours and the museum is open May-October, Wednesday through Sunday from 1-4 pm or by appointment.

To reserve tickets for WINE AND ROSES please call the Museum Director at 203-263-2855.

On Sunday, July 16, 2017, 2:30-4:30 p.m. at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, 295 West Avenue in Norwalk, CT, legendary Textile Conservator and FIT Professor June Burns Bové will present, What to wear? How the Bride Decides, a talk on the fashion and social history of the wedding dress.

“Museum catalogers are usually happy to be assigned a wedding dress; the date is very certain,” Ms. Bové said, “But that is the only certainty, for the very act of saving the dress is proof of its value to the woman who wore it. It tells about her sense of style, her economic circumstances, and her social environment.”

There may be great differences between the attire of two brides married on the same day; one may wear French couture and the other, her best day dress, but the fashion lines are discernible. During the times between two great wars, American women looked to a number of sources for fashion news, starting with the colored engraving and then the photograph. Magazines directed to women were important, but so were newspapers with pictures of actresses and the social elite. Not all dresses were saved, nor are all dresses saved today. Brides often wore their dresses as reception dresses after the wedding or made children’s clothing from the fabric. Nowadays, dresses may be resold on eBay and Craigslist. We have the ones that were kept to tell us about that “one special day” and the world of the woman who wore it.

June Burns Bové earned a BA from Bucknell University in English and French Literature and an MA from New York University in Costume Studies. For twenty years a contract employee of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June is Textile Conservator for Yeshiva University Museum and has been an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Graduate Studies of Fashion Institute of Technology since 1991 where her specialty is costume exhibition.

She has consulted for many museums and institutions including The Newark Museum, The New-York Historical Society, The New Jersey Historical Society, The Jewish Museum, the Morse Museum of Winter Park, Florida, The Merchant’s House of New York City, and the Art Department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In 2011 The Costume Society of America named her a Fellow of the Society.

This Salon includes a talk, refreshments, and a tour of the first floor of the Mansion; $15 for members, $20 for non-members per session. Refreshments are courtesy of Best in Gourmet. Please RSVP by Thurs, July 13, 2017. The chair of the Lecture Committee is Mimi Findlay of New Canaan.