Tag: art show

Mattatuck Museum Presents Connecticut Art from the Depression Era Federal Art Project

Beatrice Cuming, Saturday Night New London

The Mattatuck Museum celebrates the opening September 13 of its exhibition Art for Everyone: The Federal Art Project in Connecticut. The exhibition, Art for Everyone, will be on display until February 5, 2013.

During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration set up the Federal Arts Project to create jobs. As a result of this project, 173 Connecticut artists created over 5,000 works of art many of which disappeared. The Mattatuck Museum and the Connecticut State Library have been working together to collect and catalogue both known and unknown works.

George Earle, Bridgeport Parking Lot, courtesy of Southbury Training School

Art for Everyone examines art produced for the Federal Art Project in Connecticut. Ralph Boyer, Beatrice Cuming, James Daugherty, George Marinko, Spencer Baird Nichols, Joseph Schork and Cornelia Vetter are among the artists represented in this exhibit of more than 80 works.

This exhibition is the culmination of a multi-year, multi-part project that was instigated in 2007 by the work of Amy Trout, Connecticut River Museum, and draws upon the archives and data base of the Works Progress Administration artists at the Connecticut State Library. This exhibition places the art and artist in the broader context of American artists during the Depression Era.

Ralph Boyer, Westport WPA Art Committee

Visit www.MattatuckMuseum.org or call (203) 753-0381 for more information on all of the museum’s adult and children’s programs, events and exhibits. The Mattatuck Museum is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail, a group of sixteen world-class museums and historic sites (www.arttrail.org). Located at 144 West Main Street, Waterbury, the museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Free parking is located behind the building on Park Place.

For area information of where to stay, dine and shop visit www.litchfieldhills.com

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Pets, Portraits & Pastries, Gallery Opening at the Woodward House

L to R
Heather Norris, Heather Norris Photography. Lisa Banik, Animals for Life Middlebury. Adele Johnson, The Woodward House.

Bethlehem’s Woodward House, on the Green is calling all canine companions! On Sunday, September 30, from 2-4PM, The Woodward House will host a gallery opening on behalf of Animals For Life. The show in the gallery titled Pets, Portraits & Pastries’ is highlighting the fun photography of dogs by Heather Norris.

Adele Johnson, owner of Woodward House and Heather Norris Photography will be donating all proceeds to Animals for Life generated from this reception. As an example, there is a dog named Molly in need of surgery, living with a foster family and the proceeds from Pets, Portraits & Pastries will go towards Molly’s surgery according to Animals for Life, located in Middlebury, CT.

Heather Norris has carefully mounted over 15 dog portraits. What makes Heather Norris’ portraits pop with pizzazz is her desire to invest time interviewing the dog’s companions. She poses questions such as, If your dog was a person, what car would they drive? What job would they have? What would they wear?’ Such thorough interviews lead to whimsical and amazing portraits such as the black and white feature of ‘Barley’ dressed in a bow tie and top hat positioned with a baby grand piano or Peaches looking white and elderly like she is The Queen of England and Stella, the boxer, who knows her value, what she desires, and is eager to please.

Adele Johnson, owner of the classic 1740’s venue, The Woodward House adores animals. Adele’s love of animals has spanned a lifetime as she has rescued every stray she found and recalls bringing home turtles, kittens, chickens, birds, and snakes. Today, Adele has three dogs: Peaches, Cocoa, and Barley as well as Woodward House’s resident chicken, Duly.

Heather and Adele have each agreed to offer unique promotions to every attendee so that attendees can experience dining at Woodward House and photography sessions with Heather Norris Photography.

The cost of the reception is $20 per person in advance, $25 at the door. Entrance includes a champagne and dessert reception featuring Heather Norris Photography. To confirm attendance for Pets, Portraits and Pastries, call The Woodward House 203-266-6902.

About the Woodward House

4 The Green, Bethlehem, CT 06751.Corner of Rte. 132 and Rte. 61. (203) 266-6902. The historic Woodward House centered in Bethlehem across from The Town Green has been reborn. Four beautiful rooms, each unique can accommodate 50 guests, for intimate to mid-size dining and meetings. The chef’s award winning hand is evident not only in the restaurants artistic entrĂ©es, but equally in the incredible desserts. Voted “Best New Restaurant Litchfield County”, CT Magazine, NY Times *** – CT Magazine *** – Hartford Courant ****, Top in Service & DĂ©cor, Zagat’s. Open Wed., Thurs., Sun. 5 pm – 8 pm and Fri. & Sat. 5 pm – 9 pm. Closed Mon. & Tues.

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Bruce Museum’s 31st Annual Outdoor Arts Festival Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7, 10 am to 5 pm

10 Savrda

The Bruce Museum’s 31st Annual Outdoor Arts Festival takes place rain or shine on the grounds of the Museum on Columbus Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7, from 10 am to 5 pm. The Festival is a juried event featuring more than 85 artists selected from across the country. Paintings, photography, drawings, prints, sculptures, and mixed media pieces are all available for purchase. The Festival also includes live music on both days as well as many fun, educational family activities, and a variety of food choices.

On Saturday, live performances include the dance-inducing rhythms and sultry harmonies of the Connecticut-based band The Juicy Grapes from noon to 4 p.m. and, at 2 p.m., an oil pastel demonstration by Carol Boucher on the front steps of the Museum.

On Sunday, world-class instructors from Dance With Me Stamford, part of the chain of ballroom dance studios that are home to ABC’s Dancing with the Stars professionals Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Valentin Chmerkovskiy and Tony Dovolani, will teach a dance class and give a dazzling ballroom performance in the Lecture Gallery from noon to 2:00 p.m., and Carol Boucher will repeat her oil pastel demonstration at 2 p.m.

11 Serbin

Exhibitors compete for cash prizes in six categories: oils and acrylic on canvas; watercolor and acrylic on paper and under glass; graphics and drawings; mixed media; sculpture; and photography. In addition to individual category prizes, there are two major awards given: “Museum’s Choice Award” and the top prize of “Best in Show.” One of the Bruce’s most popular events, the event annually draws thousands of visitors.

The Bruce Museum is open during Festival hours and will feature new exhibitions highlighting the sculpture of Gaston Lachaise, recent gifts to its collection, and desert habitats.

Festival admission is $8 and includes general admission to the Bruce Museum. Admission is free to members and children under 5. The Bruce Museum is located at One Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Museum will be open for the Festival from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday. The Museum galleries will also be open for the Monday Columbus Day holiday. Festival parking is available in the Island Beach parking lot at Arch Street and Steamboat Road. The Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For additional information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376 or visit the website at http://www.brucemuseum.org.

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New Exhibits Open at the Silvermine Galleries

On Sunday, September 23 there will be an opening reception from 2pm to 4pm at the Silvermine Galleries located on 1037 Silvermine Rd. in New Canaan. This new exhibit will run from September 23 through November 3. The Gallery is open Wednesday – Saturday: 12p.m. – 5 pm; Sunday: 1 – 5 pm. For additional information visit www.silvermineart.org or www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

The art show will consist of four superlative artists and includes the work of

Camille Eskell: “Ezekiel Project”

“Dry Bones: Aurora” by New Canaan artist, Camille Eskell from her exhibit “The Ezekiel Project”

A new series of work reflecting the uncertainty, vulnerability and hope for restoring today’s cultural climate in 2- and 3-D media. The series title also alludes to the artists family name before it was Anglicized in the early 1900’s to better fit into American society. Close examination reveals hints of lace designs in her artwork, an emblem of a long-held family business.

“Creature Wood” by New York City artist, Mikhail Gubin from his exhibit “Splintery Configurations”

Mikhail Gubin: “Splintery Configurations”

The works in this new exhibit are all united by one idea, the use of recycled materials, and unified through the use of collage. The artist focuses the viewer’s attention on the issue of caring towards nature and to the earth’s dwindling resources and how it is manifested in our daily life.

“Untitled” by Easthampton, NY artist, Susan Halls from her exhibit “Head to Head”

Susan Halls: “Head to Head”

The scrutinizing ceramics faces fill the gallery with a continuous seam of small sculptures that penetrate the space and force the viewer to confront each piece as if they were looking at a criminal line up. The observer becomes the observed, the faces invite and repel, and hopefully, disturb. No one sculpture is larger than the hand, and the intimate sale draws the viewer in close.

Joan Wheeler: “Time Like a River”

This new exhibit of works consists of figurative, narrative oil paintings exploring mankind’s relationship with the natural world. The paintings reflect the cyclical seasons and interconnectedness of events over time. The title refers to the artist’s belief that events and relationships of today flow by us and become the past, while the events of the future inevitably flow towards us.

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DOMESTIC TOOLS SUBJECT OF CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBIT AT HOUSATONIC MUSEUM OF ART

Alison Saar

The Housatonic Museum of Art is pleased to announce Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit, an exhibition that explores household tools as metaphor for the social and cultural histories of women embedded in them. Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit will be on view in the Burt Chernow Galleries at the Housatonic Museum of Art from September 6 through October 26, 2012.

The term “distaff” itself refers not only to the tool attached to a spinning wheel to hold unspun fibers, but over time, came to refer to women generally. Solinger points out, “Many of these old tools facilitated….repetitive labor and evoke the various cultural histories of women’s unpaid, often diminished and disrespected status within the household and society. But in the 21st century, at a moment when ‘old tools’ have become aestheticized and expensive, we can look again and see their costly beauty.

Rickie Solinger, an award-winning author, historian and curator, reexamines women’s history by positioning tools used in a domestic setting as the “fulcrum for a contemporary work of art.” The artists in this exhibit place these old tools at the center of their own work: washboard, a dressmaker’s dummy, graters, doilies, an advice book, cooking pans, a basket, a garden hoe, dress patterns, a rolling pin, buckets, darning eggs, a work glove, a needle threader, rug beaters, ironing boards, mason jars and a telephone.

Battle Axe

Twenty-eight artists are represented in this show including Betye and Alison Saar, Lisa Alvarado, Dave Cole, Judy Hoyt, Larry Ruhl, Flo Oy Wong, Debra Priestly, to name a few.

Gallery Hours are: Monday through Friday from 8:30am until 5:30pm; Thursday until 7pm; Saturday from 9am until 3pm; Sunday from Noon until 4pm. For additional information and/or direction please visit our website www.HousatonicMuseum.org

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Botanical Watercolors at Oliver Wolcott Library for Sept. & Oct.

Located in the historic heart of Litchfield, the Oliver Wolcott Library has a long and fascinating history. The library was founded in 1862 and was named in honor of a generous donation from J. Huntington Wolcott, grandson of Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. His son, Oliver Wolcott served as Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington and John Adams as Governor of Connecticut.

The Oliver Wolcott Library is located in a house built by Elijah Wadsworth in 1799. Parties were frequently held in the ballroom on the second floor. It is said that President George Washington danced his last minuet in Litchfield in that ballroom. The ballroom was restored by the Society of Colonial Wars and can be viewed upon request.

Over the years the Library has expanded. A modern structure was added by Eliot Noyes who studied at Harvard and went on to become the Director of the Department of Industrial Design at MOMA in New York. Noyes love of modern design, open spaces and geometry is evident in this expansion that marries a historic house with a modern structure.

Among the many programs offered by the Oliver Wolcott Library, art shows are always popular. From August 28th – October 26th the work of Molly O’Neill-Lally will be featured. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 6, from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Molly O’Neill-Lally’s passion for watercolor painting began under the tutelage of internationally respected painter and illustrator, Arthur Getz, through the Washington Art Association. Years of gardening and encouragement from Getz to “paint what you see” motivated Molly to create watercolor paintings of the variety of flowers she has grown. Her gentle brush strokes, smooth shadows and translucent highlights capture the stunning beauty and delicate nature of every flower she paints.

Molly uses a dry brush watercolor technique and smooth hot pressed paper to achieve a clear representation of flowers during precise phases of growth. At times, she will incorporate different stages of development as well as colored pencil into her stunning botanical paintings. After years of owing a framing business, Molly frames and mats each of her paintings to compliment the individual flower.

In the summer, Molly works from live flowers taken from her garden; in the winter she works from photographs, art books and botanical studies to provide the correct information as to what a flower may look like at a certain point in its development.

The Oliver Wolcott Library is located on 160 South Street, Litchfield, CT. 06759. 860-567-8030. www.owlibrary.org.

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