Community Calendar

The Gunn Memorial Library is pleased to present the captivating floral photography of Nina McKitty, on view in the Stairwell Gallery from August 9th to October 4th.

Drawing inspiration from nature, travel, and the artistic traditions of both East and West, Nina McKitty brings a joyful and thoughtful lens to her digital photography. Her work explores the delicate beauty of flowers—each image carefully composed, captured, and refined in her studio to evoke both surprise and delight in the viewer.

Originally gifted a digital camera by her husband, McKitty transformed a curiosity into a profound creative journey. Over the past 15 years, she has immersed herself in the art and craft of digital photography, studying under acclaimed artists and continuously evolving her techniques. Her photographs are printed and framed by hand using archival materials, merging technical precision with artistic expression.

A former nurse practitioner and consultant, McKitty turned to photography in retirement, channeling her lifelong passions for nature and visual storytelling into a rich new chapter as a digital artist. Since 2019, her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Employee Gallery, Kent Art Association, and Washington Art Association.

Get ready to go big! The New Hartford Artisans Guild is thrilled to announce our upcoming Big

Works Art Show, celebrating artwork that makes a bold statement. This is your chance to showcase

your largest, most impactful pieces—the only requirement is that one dimension must be at least

24 inches. Whether it’s towering canvases, sweeping landscapes, or grand sculptural forms, we

want to fill the gallery with work that commands attention. Don’t miss this opportunity to take up

space and let your creativity shine on a larger scale!

DRIFTLINES, a dual exhibition featuring new works by painter Heather Neilson and photographer Babs Perkins, explores the meditative connections between memory, place, premonition, and afterthought. The two artists are local to the Northwest Corner of Connecticut with studios at Whiting Mills in Winsted. DRIFTLINES will be on display through Friday, September 12.

A reception for the artists will take place on Saturday, August 16, 5-7PM and an artist’s talk featuring the two artists in conversation is scheduled for Thursday, September 4 at 5:30PM. 

Online exhibition curated by Lani Ming Holloway with artwork by Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Laura Barr, Jordann McKenna, and Benoît Trimborn

exhibition dates:  August 1 – September 30, 2025, on www.kbfa.com

Stories told in light and silence

Poetry will make me violent

Violets outside our yard…

Why does the world have to be so hard?

Encompassing the hidden truths

 Of things unseen in what we view.

-       LMH

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is pleased to present the online exhibition Stories told in light and silence curated by Lani Ming Holloway featuring Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Laura Barr, Jordann McKenna, and Benoît Trimborn.

Maya Tihtiyas Attean is a Wabanaki artist raised on the Penobscot Reservation in Maine. Excerpted from her artist statement: “Through the lens of Wabanaki history and culture, my photographs intertwine forgotten truths within the landscape of what is now called Maine. My work explores the deep, complex relationships between the land, its people, and the lasting impact of colonization. The energy embedded in the landscape reverberates through my creations and reveals the scars left on both the earth and our bodies. My work invites contemplation on occupation and ownership, prompting reflection on who exploits the land and how systems of oppression have disrupted its balance.”

Maya’s work expresses the dichotomy the artist exists within, marrying mediums and different cultural techniques. “Does the Land Remember?” is an ongoing series photographing landscapes that hold the history of devastating events of colonization. The power of that residuum is felt in the images in a supernatural way, as the dualism of her lived experience is pronounced in the contrast of light and dark. Sunlight shimmers through the leaves as bright stars overhead look down upon the land, a fire burns. Maya’s work calls us to remember that nature feels the spirits.

Maya Tihtiyas Attean lives and works in Portland, Maine or Machigonne. She earned a BFA in Photography from Maine College of Art & Design, Portland. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME and the Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, ME.

Laura Barr’s work explores impermanence through oil paintings and oil pastel drawings on paper capturing passing moments in color, reflection on water, and light. Simplifying forms and illuminating the scale of special glimmers, her work considers the preservation of water and the protection of our environment. In Laura’s paintings in the exhibition, fireflies gleam in a starlit field and remind us that fireflies may not continue to glow on our planet, while a surfer catches the last evening wave the ocean offers, an Aurora Borealis dances in the night sky.

Laura Barr lives by the Thimble Islands in Branford, Connecticut. She earned her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA and a BA in Fine Arts from Tufts University in Medford, MA and has studied at Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy.

From Ithaca, NY, Jordann McKenna paints and photographs the quiet beauty in everyday life in work that contemplates mundanity and the softly fleeting feeling within light and shadows around her. In lushly applied oil paint, flames flicker and shadows play across the scene. Jordann’s work in this exhibition reflects the peaceful, ephemeral moods of interiors and intimate still lifes, either staged or spontaneous. Jordann McKenna works from photographs and from memory to create images that serve to process rather than recreate, expressing not only what is seen but what is felt, and celebrating the beauty in the ordinary.

Jordann McKenna earned a BS in Visual Arts from State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY, and an MFA from Maine College of Art & Design in Portland, ME. She lives and works in Portland, ME.

Born in Strasbourg, France, and trained as an architect, Benoît Trimborn describes his work as “contemporary impressionism”. Viewing the world as an architect, Benoît’s large-scale oil paintings evoke what his artist statement calls the “morphology of the landscapes… like an architect, I see in it a breath, a light, a rhythm, which alone can constitute a principle of beauty. The elements represented compose atmospheres of which I try to faithfully convey the impression, as the musician faithfully follows the score. In this process, the contemplative attitude prevails, much more than the adventurous attitude. No message, no story should disturb the projection of the viewer...”

In Benoît’s meticulously painted large-scale landscapes, the absence of the figure instills a quietude in the story while light is the present form in all its magic. Reflections play like a musical score on the surface of the water and golden glimmers illuminate the forest and emanate from a sunset sky.

Benoît Trimborn’s work is in the permanent collection of Galerie Ariel Sibony in Paris, France, Absolute Art Gallery in Bruges, Belgium, and Galerie Bertrand Gillig in Strasbourg, France. He lives and works in Strasbourg, France.

Please contact Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquiries.

Shipping is available worldwide throughout the exhibition.  

Sewing school is back in session at the Makerspace! Sign up today and learn the basics of machine sewing as you make your own apron in this two part workshop series. Whether you’ve never sewn before or it’s been a while since you last used a sewing machine, this workshop will give you the skills you’ll need to take on future sewing projects with confidence. 

Week 2 will focus on assembling the apron. You’ll learn how to sew with an accurate seam allowance, topstitch a pocket and hem, and finish raw edges with a zig zag stitch.

All supplies, including fabric and sewing machines, will be provided. If you’d like to bring your own fabric, please reach out to the Makerspace Specialist at create@gunnlibrary.org for more information. 

Please note that this is a two part workshop. Participants must attend both sessions.

Ages 18+. Registration Required.

https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/sewing-101-make-an-apron-week-2

Join us for Story Time on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 for new books, free play, and fun crafts!

Thursdays at 10:30 AM - Beginning September 4

Perfect for 3 - 5 year olds, but fun for everyone!

Join Mrs. Tricia for a classic library storytime--books, songs, bubbles, and more! Come for early literacy skills, social connections, and fun! We will focus on one special picture book author each week.

Enjoy the works of

Photographer Sarah Blodgett & Basket Weaver Tina Puckett

About the Artists 

Sarah Blodgett

Sarah Blodgett is a photographer from the Hudson Valley in New York. Born in New York City, daughter of a professional advertising photographer, she bought her first camera at the age of ten and has been shooting ever since. A commercial & portrait photographer professionally since 1993, her passion now lies with creating images of wildlife and natural areas. Her primary focus is on birds as well as landscapes, seascapes, still lives and florals. She also offers speaking programs to accompany her work with a focus on ecology and preservation of the natural world around us.

 https://westernconnecticut.blogspot.com/2025/07/art-lovers-covered-bridge-woven-hand_30.html

Tina Puckett

American Master Weaver Tina Puckett is a self-taught Artist. who has been weaving since 1981. For over 40 years the woven arts have been evolving and each one is indescribably dynamic and colorful. The character of each piece is an expression of Tina's imagination and her sense of color that she applies to the weaving and structural form. Throughout Tina’s career she has exhibited her woven arts at museums, art galleries, libraries and art shows. Also, has been featured in magazines, books, newspapers, TV and on different platforms on the web.

Artist Statement

My woven pieces from baskets to wall sculptures, ceiling hangers, to furniture has evolved and is the way I define myself as an artist, and as a woman. I am fulfilling my dreams that started out with my imagination as a set designer. My creative path took a turn. It was not set design—but the woven arts with its many forms and functions where I found the passion for my life’s work.

The natural beauty of Bittersweet always sparks my imagination and is at the heart of the many pieces I weave. My imagination guides all that I do and it has become very attuned to the harmony of shapes, forms, and colors of the vines and reeds. I am also influenced by the beauty of our natural world and wonder how to weave it.

My palette for color is very much influenced by this experience of growing up in South America. I mix my own dyes and enjoy building a palette for the reeds that will shape textures and forms with color into a

​ one of a kind woven art!

Bismuth is a Boston-based artist known for her self-portrait photographs. Her work explores and challenges ideas surrounding identity and its fragile nature, politics and trans expression through a satirical and spontaneous approach. 

Recently, Bismuth has taken up oil painting as her primary medium, in which she creates numeric and interactive landscapes. 

Dismembered, showing at Peggy Mercury, will be her debut solo exhibit and will showcase her self-portrait images alongside painted works. Co-curated with James Boehmer and Gregory Fricke, the show will display Bismuth's current fascination with fragmentation and isolation, and so much more.

Peggy Mercury

Kent Barns

9 Maple Street, Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

IG @itspeggymercury

For more information email us at hithere@peggymercury.com

Spend an afternoon writing poetry that draws on your own work experiences, surrounded by AMPs monumental artistic tribute to workers.

About the Workshop

Write about the work that shaped your life—surrounded by an indoor mural that honors it. This half-day workshop invites older adults to explore their own stories of work, purpose, and identity through poetry.

Guided by poets Steve Straight and Elizabeth Thomas, you will reflect on personal experiences, draw inspiration from AMP’s mural, and craft original poems in a relaxed, artistic setting. No prior writing experience is needed.

Who It’s For

Adults ages 55+ who are interested in exploring creative writing, whether you’re a longtime journaler or trying poetry for the first time, you'll find resonance with others in a group where every story matters.

What to Expect

• A guided creative poetry writing workshop designed for older adults
• Inspiration drawn from AMP’s 120-foot indoor mural of American workers
• Supportive instruction from two respected poet-educators
• Opportunities to explore, create, share, and connect
• Time to explore AMP’s inspiring mural gallery

Meet the Instructors

Steve Straight is a poet and retired professor of English and director of the poetry program at Manchester Community College. His book Affirmation received the 2023 William Meredith Award for Poetry.

Elizabeth Thomas is a poet, educator, and founder of UpWords Poetry. A Master Teaching Artist for the Connecticut Office of the Arts and The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, she leads poetry workshops nationwide.

About the Mural Gallery at AMP

AMP’s spacious mural gallery, set in a renovated historic mill building, combines industrial charm with a distinctive artistic atmosphere. Its centerpiece is the incredible indoor mural—120 feet long and five stories high—that celebrates American workers on a grand scale.

With the mural as the backdrop to the workshop—and three levels for viewing and reflecting—you'll have a rare opportunity to write in a space that honors creativity, work, and the stories that shape us.

You will leave with new poems, fresh inspiration, and a deeper appreciation for your own work stories—and how those stories connect to others and to the mural.

Register today!

This solo exhibition marks Brewster’s return to public exhibition after a significant studio hiatus, shaped by the pandemic and the arrival of his two young children.

Spanning two to six feet in width, Brewster’s latest works are immersive and meditative, exploring vast, perhaps virtual, landscapes. These meticulously layered oil paintings hint at human presence through subtle traces—a balanced stone, a resting stick—evoking a haunting stillness. In his signature style, Brewster uses old-master techniques and translucent glazes to explore the tension between presence and absence, clarity and ambiguity. “Some of these paintings verge on the apocalyptic while others suggest eerie calm or quiet hope,” Brewster notes. “They balance loneliness and community, action and avoidance. They are tightly tied to the physicality and geometry of the canvas itself.”

Brewster studied at Yale University and received his MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has held solo exhibitions in New York City, North Carolina, and Newfoundland, and has participated in numerous curated group shows including Icons of the 21st Century in New York and Academy 2003 at Conner Contemporary in Washington, D.C. His work has been featured in New American Paintings and reviewed in publications such as ForbesLife and The National Post.

Immerse Yourself in an Hour of French Conversation at the Gunn Memorial Library

If you are an intermediate or fluent French speaker, join us for an hour of stimulating and immersive French Conversation. 

Over the hour, participants will read articles from French magazines covering cultural topics and current events. Guided conversations will encourage lively exchanges, helping participants refine their French while deepening their appreciation for Francophone culture.

This program is an excellent opportunity to connect with fellow Francophiles, share perspectives, and experience the richness of the French language in a welcoming environment.

Join us for a meaningful cultural and linguistic experience! 

Registration is required:

www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/french-club-for-adults-4/

Or call 860-868-7586

This month’s selection is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.

All are welcome to join us for relaxing and reflective music to close the day.

Performances are followed by a reception with refreshments.

Starting at age 4, the piano has been Michael Ford's voice throughout his life. He was trained classically and has been a student of all genres to this day. Michael is also a composer with many of the “greats” from all musical backgrounds, including Yo -Yo Ma, B. B. King, Alison Krauss and David Darling. When performing at the piano, his touch is both expressive, nuanced and inspiring.

Featuring The Farmington Valley Band - the public is invited to bring lawn chairs and a picnic supper to listen to Patriotic Music from 5pm to 7pm. The Monument will have all 3 floors open between 4pm-7pm for exploration. The park grounds are always open during daylight hours and you will find 2 picnic tables, a drinking fountain, and a wonderful Victorian garden.

Hello! Practice speaking English in a casual setting at the library. Tutors from Literacy Volunteers on the Green will be on hand to keep the conversation flowing.

Did you know, coffee can awaken your creative senses as well? It's true! Coffee can be used as a painting medium which gives out these really wonderful sepia tones to render your art, while also taking in the coffee aroma as you work. Using a lot of techniques similar to watercolors, from creating transparency to blending to bringing out the details, explore and learn a fun new way of painting. Who knows, this might become your daily dose of creativity! Perfect for beginners, hobbyists and enthusiasts. Participants are welcome to walk in with their coffee cups and select from a range of ready references that they can start to paint in. As a bonus, connect with fellow participants who share your passion for art and coffee. An excellent opportunity to unwind, socialize, and make new friends in a cozy and inspiring environment.

Thursday, September 11 | 6–8 PM

Gallery 25 | Historic Train Station, New Milford, CT

Back by popular demand! Join local favorite Liz for a fun-filled evening of painting, sipping, and creativity as we bring the iconic New Milford Bandstand to life on canvas. This class was a hit at the last convention—and now it’s your turn to paint this beloved local landmark!

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned painter, Liz will guide you step-by-step in a relaxed and welcoming setting. All materials are provided—and yes, so is the wine! Just come ready to create, sip, and have a great time.

🎟️ Space is limited—reserve your seat now at Gallery25CT.com.

Come for the wine. Stay for the art. Paint the town—literally!

Join Us for Bourbon, Brews & Bluegrass!

Celebrate National Assisted Living Week with us at Brandywine Living at Litchfield for an evening of great music, local flavors, and community spirit!

📅 Thursday, September 11

🕕 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

📍 19 Constitution Way, Litchfield, CT 06759

Enjoy a lively evening featuring:

• Food Trucks
• Tastings from Litchfield Distillery & Norbrook Farm Brewery
• Live music by the "Wires & Wood" Band
• A raffle benefiting the Alzheimer’s Association

Don’t miss this fun-filled event combining bourbon, brews, and bluegrass—all for a great cause!

RSVP: Call 860-567-9500

Thursday, September 11th, at 6:30 PM, 2nd Home welcomes back Ramblin' Dan Stevens (https://www.danstevens.net/) . Dan plays an eclectic mix of acoustic finger style blues. His show is versatile and he has played almost every type of room from nice background music to concerts to houserockin' clubs. He has played all over the Eastern US, Europe, Canada and the Virgin Islands for many years and was a finalist at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis TN. He was also was recently inducted into the CT Blues Hall of Fame.

For reservations (encouraged but not required) call 860-238-4500 or email us at momanddad@2ndhomelounge.com

See our complete event list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/events/

2nd Home Lounge

524 Main Street, Winsted

2ndhomelounge.com

Join our mailing list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/email-sign-up/

Inspired by the iconic Dragonfly Inn of Stars Hollow, this playful and creative painting experience lets you pour your heart into a one-of-a-kind abstract dragonfly!

Using fluid acrylics and pour painting techniques, you'll create your own vibrant and whimsical dragonfly masterpiece—no experience needed. This drop-in event is perfect for Gilmore Girls fans, art lovers, and anyone who just wants to have some colorful fun.

✨ All materials provided

💫 All Ages Welcome!

🎟️ Register now at https://square.link/u/xZ7hzdl5 or visit  Gallery25CT.com for more info.

Drop in anytime 9 AM–Noon

🖌️ Registration required | $35 per person

Swing by between 9 AM and noon—paint at your own pace and let the colors fly!

EXHIBIT TO FEATURE THREE LOCAL ARTISTS

(New Preston, Connecticut) – The Smithy Café & Market is pleased to announce an art exhibit to be displayed September 1 to October 31, 2025, titled Perception and Perspective: Three Artists-Becky Butler, Sandra Daignault and Lucy C. Pierpont.

Join us for a collaboration of three women and their varying forms of artwork, style, and perspectives.

The three artists have painted together for several years using a variety of mediums.They have formed friendships and enjoy working together while sharing ideas and support.

Becky Butler founded the not-for-profit, Arts Escape in Southbury in 2012. Arts Escape’s mission was to focus on arts education for adults. After witnessing firsthand how art created camaraderie and joy with those who participated, it was time for Becky to do the same. She retired in 2022 to follow her own art journey. She has been taking painting classes in Abstract, Pastel and Acrylics for the past two years and is excited to keep learning and exploring new mediums. Her pastel, Tethered Beauty, was accepted into a National Pastel show and she also won Best in Show for mixed media in Roxbury’s Art at the Meeting House show in 2024 for Somewhere Out There. Becky lives in Woodbury, Connecticut with her husband Paul.

“I love working in pastels – the colors are limitless and immediate. My pastel paintings are primarily painted realistically. Breaking the barriers of painting realistically has been a challenge. My love for color has recently launched my exploration in creating abstract work. Using color and mark making intuitively is exciting and challenging as well as inspiring. During my exploration I found the medium of oil and cold wax. While having no expectations as to the outcome of my work, my eyes have opened to a whole new world of creativity. I love the freedom of experimentation and the joy of playing. I want my work to reflect my emotional insight into today’s world while uncovering the beauty that still exists,”  explains Becky.

Sandra Daignault, a Woodbury resident, was the Fine Arts Director at Arts Escape, Inc in Southbury, CT and teaches classes in acrylic painting. Her artwork has been shown in galleries and organizations across CT (Stamford, Litchfield, Washington, New Milford, Brookfield, Bantam, Ridgefield, West Hartford, Southbury, Rowayton, Newtown), as well as having a permanent piece at the US Headquarters of Jägermeister in Westchester County. In addition, she has published two books of poetry with illustrations and has recently published a climate change fiction novel. Visit her website at sdaignaultfineart.com.

“My painting process is all about creating an open mind and letting go. While I often do not have a predetermined subject I am always influenced by my fascination with our place in the universe. Letting go of preconceived forms allows for the mystery and essence that makes up everything around us. While my influences are abstract artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, contemporary Peter Wileman as well as English romantic artist (JW Turner) I strive to create from the words of favorite poets (Pablo Neruda, Wislawa Szymborska, Mary Oliver). It will please me if viewers respond with wonder and wanting( not knowing what),” states Sandra.

Woodbury resident, Lucy C. Pierpont has worked in the marketing/graphic design field ever since graduating from Hartwick College as an art major. She has created art her whole life and has had her photographs and paintings displayed in exhibits at the Mattatuck Museum, Majors Inn, Hartwick College, Oneonta Art Association, Kent Art Association, Washington Art Association, Burnham Library, Kent Memorial Library Art at the Meetinghouse, Ridgefield Art Walk, Flanders Nature Center and now, The Smithy. She currently works part-time with the Kent Memorial Library and the Washington Depot Office of Klemm Real Estate doing graphic design & public relations. Her artwork can be viewed at lucypierpont.carrd.co. Her graphic designs for the Kent Memorial Library have been the recipient of eight Connecticut Library Association Publicity Awards in recognition of design, marketing, and publicity created to promote a Library service or event.

“From my earliest recollections, art has always been in the forefront. I chose the graphic design route and spent my career in it. Now art embodies my life- through friends, work, play, and travel!” claims Lucy.

Please join us for a reception on Saturday, October 11 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. For more information, please call the Smithy at (860) 868-9003 or go to their website at thesmithymarket.com.

10 Main Street New Preston CT 06777

#         #         #         #

caption: Heat by Lucy C. Pierpont, Parade by Sandra Daignault, and Opening Night by Becky Butler are a few of many paintings in an exhibit titled Perception and Perspective: Three Artists-Becky Butler, Sandra Daignault and Lucy C. Pierpont. The show will be on display from September 1 to October 31, 2025.

The Judy Black Memorial Park and Gardens is pleased to present an art exhibition, “A Frayed Edge,” featuring the works of Stace Dillard. This show is on view beginning Friday, August 29.

An opening reception will be held at the park on Saturday, August 30 from 3 to 5 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

Dillard’s collage work is composed of vibrant, abstract mixed-media compositions characterized by geometric structures, overlapping elements, and a layering of colors, patterns, and textures. 

This show will remain on view through Sunday, September 21. Check our social media for weekly open hours: @judyblackpark on Instagram and Facebook.

The Gunn Memorial Library is pleased to present the captivating floral photography of Nina McKitty, on view in the Stairwell Gallery from August 9th to October 4th.

Drawing inspiration from nature, travel, and the artistic traditions of both East and West, Nina McKitty brings a joyful and thoughtful lens to her digital photography. Her work explores the delicate beauty of flowers—each image carefully composed, captured, and refined in her studio to evoke both surprise and delight in the viewer.

Originally gifted a digital camera by her husband, McKitty transformed a curiosity into a profound creative journey. Over the past 15 years, she has immersed herself in the art and craft of digital photography, studying under acclaimed artists and continuously evolving her techniques. Her photographs are printed and framed by hand using archival materials, merging technical precision with artistic expression.

A former nurse practitioner and consultant, McKitty turned to photography in retirement, channeling her lifelong passions for nature and visual storytelling into a rich new chapter as a digital artist. Since 2019, her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Employee Gallery, Kent Art Association, and Washington Art Association.

Get ready to go big! The New Hartford Artisans Guild is thrilled to announce our upcoming Big

Works Art Show, celebrating artwork that makes a bold statement. This is your chance to showcase

your largest, most impactful pieces—the only requirement is that one dimension must be at least

24 inches. Whether it’s towering canvases, sweeping landscapes, or grand sculptural forms, we

want to fill the gallery with work that commands attention. Don’t miss this opportunity to take up

space and let your creativity shine on a larger scale!

Online exhibition curated by Lani Ming Holloway with artwork by Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Laura Barr, Jordann McKenna, and Benoît Trimborn

exhibition dates:  August 1 – September 30, 2025, on www.kbfa.com

Stories told in light and silence

Poetry will make me violent

Violets outside our yard…

Why does the world have to be so hard?

Encompassing the hidden truths

 Of things unseen in what we view.

-       LMH

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is pleased to present the online exhibition Stories told in light and silence curated by Lani Ming Holloway featuring Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Laura Barr, Jordann McKenna, and Benoît Trimborn.

Maya Tihtiyas Attean is a Wabanaki artist raised on the Penobscot Reservation in Maine. Excerpted from her artist statement: “Through the lens of Wabanaki history and culture, my photographs intertwine forgotten truths within the landscape of what is now called Maine. My work explores the deep, complex relationships between the land, its people, and the lasting impact of colonization. The energy embedded in the landscape reverberates through my creations and reveals the scars left on both the earth and our bodies. My work invites contemplation on occupation and ownership, prompting reflection on who exploits the land and how systems of oppression have disrupted its balance.”

Maya’s work expresses the dichotomy the artist exists within, marrying mediums and different cultural techniques. “Does the Land Remember?” is an ongoing series photographing landscapes that hold the history of devastating events of colonization. The power of that residuum is felt in the images in a supernatural way, as the dualism of her lived experience is pronounced in the contrast of light and dark. Sunlight shimmers through the leaves as bright stars overhead look down upon the land, a fire burns. Maya’s work calls us to remember that nature feels the spirits.

Maya Tihtiyas Attean lives and works in Portland, Maine or Machigonne. She earned a BFA in Photography from Maine College of Art & Design, Portland. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME and the Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, ME.

Laura Barr’s work explores impermanence through oil paintings and oil pastel drawings on paper capturing passing moments in color, reflection on water, and light. Simplifying forms and illuminating the scale of special glimmers, her work considers the preservation of water and the protection of our environment. In Laura’s paintings in the exhibition, fireflies gleam in a starlit field and remind us that fireflies may not continue to glow on our planet, while a surfer catches the last evening wave the ocean offers, an Aurora Borealis dances in the night sky.

Laura Barr lives by the Thimble Islands in Branford, Connecticut. She earned her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA and a BA in Fine Arts from Tufts University in Medford, MA and has studied at Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy.

From Ithaca, NY, Jordann McKenna paints and photographs the quiet beauty in everyday life in work that contemplates mundanity and the softly fleeting feeling within light and shadows around her. In lushly applied oil paint, flames flicker and shadows play across the scene. Jordann’s work in this exhibition reflects the peaceful, ephemeral moods of interiors and intimate still lifes, either staged or spontaneous. Jordann McKenna works from photographs and from memory to create images that serve to process rather than recreate, expressing not only what is seen but what is felt, and celebrating the beauty in the ordinary.

Jordann McKenna earned a BS in Visual Arts from State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY, and an MFA from Maine College of Art & Design in Portland, ME. She lives and works in Portland, ME.

Born in Strasbourg, France, and trained as an architect, Benoît Trimborn describes his work as “contemporary impressionism”. Viewing the world as an architect, Benoît’s large-scale oil paintings evoke what his artist statement calls the “morphology of the landscapes… like an architect, I see in it a breath, a light, a rhythm, which alone can constitute a principle of beauty. The elements represented compose atmospheres of which I try to faithfully convey the impression, as the musician faithfully follows the score. In this process, the contemplative attitude prevails, much more than the adventurous attitude. No message, no story should disturb the projection of the viewer...”

In Benoît’s meticulously painted large-scale landscapes, the absence of the figure instills a quietude in the story while light is the present form in all its magic. Reflections play like a musical score on the surface of the water and golden glimmers illuminate the forest and emanate from a sunset sky.

Benoît Trimborn’s work is in the permanent collection of Galerie Ariel Sibony in Paris, France, Absolute Art Gallery in Bruges, Belgium, and Galerie Bertrand Gillig in Strasbourg, France. He lives and works in Strasbourg, France.

Please contact Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquiries.

Shipping is available worldwide throughout the exhibition.  

This solo exhibition marks Brewster’s return to public exhibition after a significant studio hiatus, shaped by the pandemic and the arrival of his two young children.

Spanning two to six feet in width, Brewster’s latest works are immersive and meditative, exploring vast, perhaps virtual, landscapes. These meticulously layered oil paintings hint at human presence through subtle traces—a balanced stone, a resting stick—evoking a haunting stillness. In his signature style, Brewster uses old-master techniques and translucent glazes to explore the tension between presence and absence, clarity and ambiguity. “Some of these paintings verge on the apocalyptic while others suggest eerie calm or quiet hope,” Brewster notes. “They balance loneliness and community, action and avoidance. They are tightly tied to the physicality and geometry of the canvas itself.”

Brewster studied at Yale University and received his MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has held solo exhibitions in New York City, North Carolina, and Newfoundland, and has participated in numerous curated group shows including Icons of the 21st Century in New York and Academy 2003 at Conner Contemporary in Washington, D.C. His work has been featured in New American Paintings and reviewed in publications such as ForbesLife and The National Post.

Enjoy the works of

Photographer Sarah Blodgett & Basket Weaver Tina Puckett

About the Artists 

Sarah Blodgett

Sarah Blodgett is a photographer from the Hudson Valley in New York. Born in New York City, daughter of a professional advertising photographer, she bought her first camera at the age of ten and has been shooting ever since. A commercial & portrait photographer professionally since 1993, her passion now lies with creating images of wildlife and natural areas. Her primary focus is on birds as well as landscapes, seascapes, still lives and florals. She also offers speaking programs to accompany her work with a focus on ecology and preservation of the natural world around us.

 https://westernconnecticut.blogspot.com/2025/07/art-lovers-covered-bridge-woven-hand_30.html

Tina Puckett

American Master Weaver Tina Puckett is a self-taught Artist. who has been weaving since 1981. For over 40 years the woven arts have been evolving and each one is indescribably dynamic and colorful. The character of each piece is an expression of Tina's imagination and her sense of color that she applies to the weaving and structural form. Throughout Tina’s career she has exhibited her woven arts at museums, art galleries, libraries and art shows. Also, has been featured in magazines, books, newspapers, TV and on different platforms on the web.

Artist Statement

My woven pieces from baskets to wall sculptures, ceiling hangers, to furniture has evolved and is the way I define myself as an artist, and as a woman. I am fulfilling my dreams that started out with my imagination as a set designer. My creative path took a turn. It was not set design—but the woven arts with its many forms and functions where I found the passion for my life’s work.

The natural beauty of Bittersweet always sparks my imagination and is at the heart of the many pieces I weave. My imagination guides all that I do and it has become very attuned to the harmony of shapes, forms, and colors of the vines and reeds. I am also influenced by the beauty of our natural world and wonder how to weave it.

My palette for color is very much influenced by this experience of growing up in South America. I mix my own dyes and enjoy building a palette for the reeds that will shape textures and forms with color into a

​ one of a kind woven art!

🎨 Art Show @ White Silo Winery in Sherman, CT

🗓 On view: September 5–28

🥂 Opening Reception: Sunday, September 7 | 2–4 PM

Get ready for a burst of bold color and creative energy in “Pouring with a Purpose”—a showcase of abstract acrylic art and photography by Christy Bonaiuto.

Christy’s work is all about movement, mood, and vibrant spontaneity, using poured acrylics, resin, and layered textures to create immersive, one-of-a-kind pieces that flow with emotion. Her abstract photography adds another dynamic layer to the show—capturing moments that feel both fleeting and timeless.

Stop by White Silo Winery, enjoy a glass of wine, and explore a diverse art show featuring local artist, Christy Bonaiuto. Come for the view—and leave with something beautiful.

✨ Free & open to the public

🛍️ Artwork available for purchase

Come for the pour. Stay for the art.

White Silo Winery

32 Rt. 37 East

Sherman, CT 06784

860.355.0271

Friday 11-6 PM | Saturday 11-6 PM | Sunday 11-6 PM

Bismuth is a Boston-based artist known for her self-portrait photographs. Her work explores and challenges ideas surrounding identity and its fragile nature, politics and trans expression through a satirical and spontaneous approach. 

Recently, Bismuth has taken up oil painting as her primary medium, in which she creates numeric and interactive landscapes. 

Dismembered, showing at Peggy Mercury, will be her debut solo exhibit and will showcase her self-portrait images alongside painted works. Co-curated with James Boehmer and Gregory Fricke, the show will display Bismuth's current fascination with fragmentation and isolation, and so much more.

Peggy Mercury

Kent Barns

9 Maple Street, Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

IG @itspeggymercury

For more information email us at hithere@peggymercury.com

DRIFTLINES, a dual exhibition featuring new works by painter Heather Neilson and photographer Babs Perkins, explores the meditative connections between memory, place, premonition, and afterthought. The two artists are local to the Northwest Corner of Connecticut with studios at Whiting Mills in Winsted. DRIFTLINES will be on display through Friday, September 12.

A reception for the artists will take place on Saturday, August 16, 5-7PM and an artist’s talk featuring the two artists in conversation is scheduled for Thursday, September 4 at 5:30PM. 

Paint your own grand romantic gesture! Inspired by the unforgettable Gilmore Girls moment when Lorelai asks for “1000 yellow daisies,” this whimsical watercolor class brings that dreamy energy to life on paper.

Join Liz at Gallery 25 as part of A Weekend in the Life, and paint your own field of yellow blooms in this relaxed, beginner-friendly workshop. Learn watercolor basics, daisy techniques, and how to layer color to bring your floral vision to life.

💫 Fun fact: the actor who played Max Medina—Lorelai’s 1000-daisy suitor—will be in town that weekend! It’s the perfect time to channel your inner romantic and celebrate love, art, and Stars Hollow vibes.

🎟️ Materials provided

🖌️ Register at https://square.link/u/zskiZ6Lt or visit  Gallery25CT.com

💐 All skill levels welcome!

Book Club Selection Announcement: Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks — A Powerful Memoir of Sudden Loss, Enduring Love, and the Search for Solace

This month, our book club invites you to embark on an unforgettable reading journey with Memorial Days, the newest work from Pulitzer Prize–winning author Geraldine Brooks. Known for her masterful historical fiction—including the bestselling Horse—Brooks now turns her lens inward, offering an achingly beautiful and deeply personal memoir of love, grief, and healing.

When Brooks’s husband, journalist and author Tony Horwitz, died unexpectedly at the age of sixty, her world was torn apart. The man with whom she had shared a life of purpose and laughter—raising two sons, traveling the world, and building a home on Martha’s Vineyard—was suddenly gone. In the days that followed, Brooks found herself navigating not just sorrow, but the chaos of logistics, bureaucracy, and emotional isolation that often follow sudden loss.

Memorial Days chronicles the three years of aching stillness that followed and the bold decision to seek healing in solitude. Brooks took refuge on a remote island off the coast of Australia, where she spent days in near silence, contemplating the nature of grief and the rituals that might restore her. Her reflections, drawn from personal experience and cross-cultural insight, create a memoir that is both intimate and universal—a guide for anyone who has faced the sharp edge of absence.

In prose as spare as it is luminous, Brooks crafts a love letter to the man she lost and a profound meditation on how we endure and evolve in the wake of devastation. Memorial Days is more than a memoir; it’s a testament to the resilience of the human heart and the deep currents that bind us to those we love.

Registration is required: https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/gml-friday-book-club-memorial-days-by-geraldine-brooks/

Fridays from end of May through mid-October. 3:00 TO 6:00 PM Rain* or Shine!

Held at the KENT LAND TRUST FIELD, 37 South Main Street (Route 7 just south of the traffic light) and across the road from Kent Greenhouse & Gardens

Fresh produce, baked goods, homemade preserves, fresh poultry, gourmet mushrooms, herbal teas & products, honey, maple syrup, salsa, guacamole & chips, and more!!

*In case of heavy rains or storms we will be located at CT Antique Machinery Association, 31 Kent Cornwall Rd (Route 7 North) - advance notice will be given.

 Ready for dessert? Sweeten your day by joining Matt Yanarella with MY Productions CT at the David M. Hunt Library as we hand-make cannoli, a classic Italian dessert, from shell to filling on September 12th at 3:30pm. This workshop is best for ages 10 and up on their own, kids under 10 can participate with an adult. Space is limited, so register today online here or contact the library for more information.

Work by area artists of paintings, hand pulled prints, photography, ceramics and weavings.

Back by Popular Demand!

Join the Friends of the Eric Sloane Museum for a unique opportunity to experience a private after-hours tour of the museum's collection and art gallery. Enjoy local craft refreshments, along with hors d'oeuvres, as we explore some of the museum’s hidden gems in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Renowned author, historian, and art specialist Wil Mauch will provide a deeper insight into the art collection, while Museum Curator Andrew Rowand will take you behind the scenes of the museum. There will also be time for socializing, asking questions, and personal exploration of what makes the museum special. There will also be a silent auction with items not to miss. All proceeds will benefit the Friends of the Eric Sloane Museum and their mission to preserve the legacy of Eric Sloane and the museum he founded. Tickets are limited, so be sure to register today!

Please join us at an Artist’s Reception for painter and illustrator Katie Atkinson, our featured artist for September and October. Katie’s whimsical works are vibrant with color and strive to communicate “hope, beauty, and the peace found in simplicity.” Come meet Katie, learn more about her career and her work, and view her show. All are welcome.

Local favorite performing cover songs & originals

with amazing harmony and vocals.

Food Truck: Meraki

BYOB & lawn chairs, blanket

Rain (Indoors) or Shine

Full Summer Sunset Concert Series:

Friday June 13: Scott Hopkins Band

Thursday June 19: Nekita Waller & Band

Friday July 25: Caribbean Vibe Steel Drum Band

Friday August 22: Al Fenton Big Band

Friday September 12: Potter's Field

Friday, September 12th, 2nd Home is excited to have Kala Farnham (https://www.kalafarnham.com/) here for her first time. Kala Farnham crafts folk songs with roots and wings, weaving age-old truths into modern grooves. The 18th Connecticut State Troubadour and Rose Garden Performing Songwriter Contest winner invites listeners into conversation with intimate, fireside-style performances. With soul-stirring vocals and mystical folk harp, piano, and guitar, she draws audiences into a transcendent journey—one that lingers long after the final note fades. Come down and make Kala feel welcome for her first time here.

For reservations call 860-238-4500 or email us at momanddad@2ndhomelounge.com

See our complete event list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/events/

Our Google Street View is online, and it looks amazing:

https://goo.gl/maps/eC7A4ZDEjenNqzpb6

https://goo.gl/maps/NWGK4NRyk6MNfmWZ6

2nd Home Lounge

524 Main Street, Winsted

2ndhomelounge.com

Join our mailing list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/email-sign-up/

Friday, September 12th, at 7:00 PM, 2nd Home welcomes HannaH's Field for their first time here. HannaH's Field brings Reggae Wrapped Roots music to "audiences who are open to the idea of sound waves and music as a form of sonic medicine." HannaH has been nominated in Connecticut for many years as “Best Female Vocalist”. HannaH’s vocals have been described as, “evoking a blend of Joan Baez and Grace Slick or a somewhat subdued Janis Joplin”. The bands last 2 releases, Revolutionary Soldiers and Cyrstal Vision have had songs in regular rotation on SiriusXM and their music charted #11 on Relix radio chart.

Please come down and make them feel welcome for their first time here. We're betting this is going to be an especially fun evening.

Thursday, July 17th, at 6:30 PM, 2nd Home welcomes back the T.J. Thompson Trio. This promises to be an amazing evening with this killer jazz trio. They've been here a number of times already, and it's always special. A true don't miss.

For reservations (encouraged but not required) call 860-238-4500 or email us at momanddad@2ndhomelounge.com

https://www.facebook.com/tjthompsontrio/

See our complete event list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/events/

2nd Home Lounge

524 Main Street, Winsted

2ndhomelounge.com

Come join us for a Saturday on the Arethusa Farm. Enjoy the animals, be creative with a farm related craft/game, and story time with author & illustrator Ms. Parmelee! 

Saturday's starting 7/19

9:00 - 11:00 AM

Ages 5 & under

$35 per family

For questions, email: erikae@arethusafarmfoundation.org

To register and pay, please visit: www.arethasatarmcoamdation.org

Inspired by the iconic Dragonfly Inn of Stars Hollow, this playful and creative painting experience lets you pour your heart into a one-of-a-kind abstract dragonfly!

Using fluid acrylics and pour painting techniques, you'll create your own vibrant and whimsical dragonfly masterpiece—no experience needed. This drop-in event is perfect for Gilmore Girls fans, art lovers, and anyone who just wants to have some colorful fun.

✨ All materials provided

💫 All Ages Welcome!

🎟️ Register now at https://square.link/u/n1ebHZQs or visit  Gallery25CT.com

Drop in anytime 9 AM–Noon

🖌️ Registration required | $35 per person

Swing by between 9 AM and noon—paint at your own pace and let the colors fly!

EXHIBIT TO FEATURE THREE LOCAL ARTISTS

(New Preston, Connecticut) – The Smithy Café & Market is pleased to announce an art exhibit to be displayed September 1 to October 31, 2025, titled Perception and Perspective: Three Artists-Becky Butler, Sandra Daignault and Lucy C. Pierpont.

Join us for a collaboration of three women and their varying forms of artwork, style, and perspectives.

The three artists have painted together for several years using a variety of mediums.They have formed friendships and enjoy working together while sharing ideas and support.

Becky Butler founded the not-for-profit, Arts Escape in Southbury in 2012. Arts Escape’s mission was to focus on arts education for adults. After witnessing firsthand how art created camaraderie and joy with those who participated, it was time for Becky to do the same. She retired in 2022 to follow her own art journey. She has been taking painting classes in Abstract, Pastel and Acrylics for the past two years and is excited to keep learning and exploring new mediums. Her pastel, Tethered Beauty, was accepted into a National Pastel show and she also won Best in Show for mixed media in Roxbury’s Art at the Meeting House show in 2024 for Somewhere Out There. Becky lives in Woodbury, Connecticut with her husband Paul.

“I love working in pastels – the colors are limitless and immediate. My pastel paintings are primarily painted realistically. Breaking the barriers of painting realistically has been a challenge. My love for color has recently launched my exploration in creating abstract work. Using color and mark making intuitively is exciting and challenging as well as inspiring. During my exploration I found the medium of oil and cold wax. While having no expectations as to the outcome of my work, my eyes have opened to a whole new world of creativity. I love the freedom of experimentation and the joy of playing. I want my work to reflect my emotional insight into today’s world while uncovering the beauty that still exists,”  explains Becky.

Sandra Daignault, a Woodbury resident, was the Fine Arts Director at Arts Escape, Inc in Southbury, CT and teaches classes in acrylic painting. Her artwork has been shown in galleries and organizations across CT (Stamford, Litchfield, Washington, New Milford, Brookfield, Bantam, Ridgefield, West Hartford, Southbury, Rowayton, Newtown), as well as having a permanent piece at the US Headquarters of Jägermeister in Westchester County. In addition, she has published two books of poetry with illustrations and has recently published a climate change fiction novel. Visit her website at sdaignaultfineart.com.

“My painting process is all about creating an open mind and letting go. While I often do not have a predetermined subject I am always influenced by my fascination with our place in the universe. Letting go of preconceived forms allows for the mystery and essence that makes up everything around us. While my influences are abstract artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, contemporary Peter Wileman as well as English romantic artist (JW Turner) I strive to create from the words of favorite poets (Pablo Neruda, Wislawa Szymborska, Mary Oliver). It will please me if viewers respond with wonder and wanting( not knowing what),” states Sandra.

Woodbury resident, Lucy C. Pierpont has worked in the marketing/graphic design field ever since graduating from Hartwick College as an art major. She has created art her whole life and has had her photographs and paintings displayed in exhibits at the Mattatuck Museum, Majors Inn, Hartwick College, Oneonta Art Association, Kent Art Association, Washington Art Association, Burnham Library, Kent Memorial Library Art at the Meetinghouse, Ridgefield Art Walk, Flanders Nature Center and now, The Smithy. She currently works part-time with the Kent Memorial Library and the Washington Depot Office of Klemm Real Estate doing graphic design & public relations. Her artwork can be viewed at lucypierpont.carrd.co. Her graphic designs for the Kent Memorial Library have been the recipient of eight Connecticut Library Association Publicity Awards in recognition of design, marketing, and publicity created to promote a Library service or event.

“From my earliest recollections, art has always been in the forefront. I chose the graphic design route and spent my career in it. Now art embodies my life- through friends, work, play, and travel!” claims Lucy.

Please join us for a reception on Saturday, October 11 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. For more information, please call the Smithy at (860) 868-9003 or go to their website at thesmithymarket.com.

10 Main Street New Preston CT 06777

#         #         #         #

caption: Heat by Lucy C. Pierpont, Parade by Sandra Daignault, and Opening Night by Becky Butler are a few of many paintings in an exhibit titled Perception and Perspective: Three Artists-Becky Butler, Sandra Daignault and Lucy C. Pierpont. The show will be on display from September 1 to October 31, 2025.

The Judy Black Memorial Park and Gardens is pleased to present an art exhibition, “A Frayed Edge,” featuring the works of Stace Dillard. This show is on view beginning Friday, August 29.

An opening reception will be held at the park on Saturday, August 30 from 3 to 5 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

Dillard’s collage work is composed of vibrant, abstract mixed-media compositions characterized by geometric structures, overlapping elements, and a layering of colors, patterns, and textures. 

This show will remain on view through Sunday, September 21. Check our social media for weekly open hours: @judyblackpark on Instagram and Facebook.

The Gunn Memorial Library is pleased to present the captivating floral photography of Nina McKitty, on view in the Stairwell Gallery from August 9th to October 4th.

Drawing inspiration from nature, travel, and the artistic traditions of both East and West, Nina McKitty brings a joyful and thoughtful lens to her digital photography. Her work explores the delicate beauty of flowers—each image carefully composed, captured, and refined in her studio to evoke both surprise and delight in the viewer.

Originally gifted a digital camera by her husband, McKitty transformed a curiosity into a profound creative journey. Over the past 15 years, she has immersed herself in the art and craft of digital photography, studying under acclaimed artists and continuously evolving her techniques. Her photographs are printed and framed by hand using archival materials, merging technical precision with artistic expression.

A former nurse practitioner and consultant, McKitty turned to photography in retirement, channeling her lifelong passions for nature and visual storytelling into a rich new chapter as a digital artist. Since 2019, her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Employee Gallery, Kent Art Association, and Washington Art Association.

Join the Friends of Topsmead State Forest, Litchfield Hills Audubon Society, and Housatonic Valley Association for our Annual Members Day "Hawk Watch" at Topsmead State Forest. An open invitation for members of the Friends of Topsmead and their friends to scan the skies over the forest for a varierty of migrating hawks! Meet at the tent behind the shed adjacent to the Chase Cottage.

RAIN DATE: Sunday, June 14th, For GPS, use Buell Road as your destination. We look forward to seeing you!

The Litchfield Farmers Market is one of the few year-round markets in the Connecticut. The weekly Saturday market offers fresh seasonal produce, fruit, berries, herbs, sustainably sourced fish; artisanal cheeses, breads and baked goods, local honey, maple syrup and gifts - all raised, grown or crafted by 15+ local vendors. 

The market occasionally hosts live music and supports non-profits from throughout the Litchfield area.

INDOOR MARKET - November through mid-June (intermittent Saturdays through the winter months -- check the website for dates.) Open Saturdays 10am - 1pm at the Litchfield Community Center located at 421 Litchfield Road, Litchfield, CT.

OUTDOOR MARKET - mid- June through October located at Center School, Litchfield.

Get ready to go big! The New Hartford Artisans Guild is thrilled to announce our upcoming Big

Works Art Show, celebrating artwork that makes a bold statement. This is your chance to showcase

your largest, most impactful pieces—the only requirement is that one dimension must be at least

24 inches. Whether it’s towering canvases, sweeping landscapes, or grand sculptural forms, we

want to fill the gallery with work that commands attention. Don’t miss this opportunity to take up

space and let your creativity shine on a larger scale!

Kateland Kelly, the author of Sending Secular Prayers: How to Survive Medical Gaslighting, has practiced oncology, primary care, occupational medicine, emergency medicine, and internal medicine since 2010. She will define different types of care (urgent/emergency versus primary versus specialty), medical gaslighting, and discuss how dismissing patients leads to poor patient outcomes and what people can do to be proactive about preventing this happening to them. She will also read from her book and detail how to get clinicians to actually LISTEN to you when you are speaking to them. It's an ongoing battle for patients to not only understand their clinicians, but for clinicians to understand their patients. Each attendee will receive a handout with the definitions and action points they can use to create their History of Present Illness to ensure their medical story is preserved with accuracy.

Online exhibition curated by Lani Ming Holloway with artwork by Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Laura Barr, Jordann McKenna, and Benoît Trimborn

exhibition dates:  August 1 – September 30, 2025, on www.kbfa.com

Stories told in light and silence

Poetry will make me violent

Violets outside our yard…

Why does the world have to be so hard?

Encompassing the hidden truths

 Of things unseen in what we view.

-       LMH

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is pleased to present the online exhibition Stories told in light and silence curated by Lani Ming Holloway featuring Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Laura Barr, Jordann McKenna, and Benoît Trimborn.

Maya Tihtiyas Attean is a Wabanaki artist raised on the Penobscot Reservation in Maine. Excerpted from her artist statement: “Through the lens of Wabanaki history and culture, my photographs intertwine forgotten truths within the landscape of what is now called Maine. My work explores the deep, complex relationships between the land, its people, and the lasting impact of colonization. The energy embedded in the landscape reverberates through my creations and reveals the scars left on both the earth and our bodies. My work invites contemplation on occupation and ownership, prompting reflection on who exploits the land and how systems of oppression have disrupted its balance.”

Maya’s work expresses the dichotomy the artist exists within, marrying mediums and different cultural techniques. “Does the Land Remember?” is an ongoing series photographing landscapes that hold the history of devastating events of colonization. The power of that residuum is felt in the images in a supernatural way, as the dualism of her lived experience is pronounced in the contrast of light and dark. Sunlight shimmers through the leaves as bright stars overhead look down upon the land, a fire burns. Maya’s work calls us to remember that nature feels the spirits.

Maya Tihtiyas Attean lives and works in Portland, Maine or Machigonne. She earned a BFA in Photography from Maine College of Art & Design, Portland. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME and the Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, ME.

Laura Barr’s work explores impermanence through oil paintings and oil pastel drawings on paper capturing passing moments in color, reflection on water, and light. Simplifying forms and illuminating the scale of special glimmers, her work considers the preservation of water and the protection of our environment. In Laura’s paintings in the exhibition, fireflies gleam in a starlit field and remind us that fireflies may not continue to glow on our planet, while a surfer catches the last evening wave the ocean offers, an Aurora Borealis dances in the night sky.

Laura Barr lives by the Thimble Islands in Branford, Connecticut. She earned her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA and a BA in Fine Arts from Tufts University in Medford, MA and has studied at Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy.

From Ithaca, NY, Jordann McKenna paints and photographs the quiet beauty in everyday life in work that contemplates mundanity and the softly fleeting feeling within light and shadows around her. In lushly applied oil paint, flames flicker and shadows play across the scene. Jordann’s work in this exhibition reflects the peaceful, ephemeral moods of interiors and intimate still lifes, either staged or spontaneous. Jordann McKenna works from photographs and from memory to create images that serve to process rather than recreate, expressing not only what is seen but what is felt, and celebrating the beauty in the ordinary.

Jordann McKenna earned a BS in Visual Arts from State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY, and an MFA from Maine College of Art & Design in Portland, ME. She lives and works in Portland, ME.

Born in Strasbourg, France, and trained as an architect, Benoît Trimborn describes his work as “contemporary impressionism”. Viewing the world as an architect, Benoît’s large-scale oil paintings evoke what his artist statement calls the “morphology of the landscapes… like an architect, I see in it a breath, a light, a rhythm, which alone can constitute a principle of beauty. The elements represented compose atmospheres of which I try to faithfully convey the impression, as the musician faithfully follows the score. In this process, the contemplative attitude prevails, much more than the adventurous attitude. No message, no story should disturb the projection of the viewer...”

In Benoît’s meticulously painted large-scale landscapes, the absence of the figure instills a quietude in the story while light is the present form in all its magic. Reflections play like a musical score on the surface of the water and golden glimmers illuminate the forest and emanate from a sunset sky.

Benoît Trimborn’s work is in the permanent collection of Galerie Ariel Sibony in Paris, France, Absolute Art Gallery in Bruges, Belgium, and Galerie Bertrand Gillig in Strasbourg, France. He lives and works in Strasbourg, France.

Please contact Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquiries.

Shipping is available worldwide throughout the exhibition.  

Imagine, Write, Create!

Led by author and artist Dana Rau

September 13  I 1:30pm

It’s not every day your child gets to play word games with a published children’s book author. Dana Rau brings a fun, hands-on approach to writing and art games, sparking creativity and curiosity in kids of all ages. Through a series of imaginative activities, kids will explore storytelling and art—and enjoy the thrill of creating together while making something truly their own.

Whether your child loves words, pictures, or just wants to try something new, they’ll leave feeling inspired about what they've created and excited to keep exploring. Mark your calendar and join the fun!

About Author-Artist Dana Rau

Dana Meachen Rau is the author of over 350 books for children, spanning early readers, nonfiction, and picture books. As a teacher with a background in both writing and visual art, Dana brings a lively, interactive approach to her workshops, encouraging kids to express themselves through words, images, and play.

Part of AMP’s Family Day series in Winsted, CT, this hands-on workshop invites kids and parents to explore writing and art with a published children’s author—perfect for sparking creativity at the start of the school year.

Schedule of Activities

Doors Open 10am

Teen Art Studio 10:30am

Story Time & Craft 11am

Art & Explore 12pm

All-ages art activity, scavenger hunt, kid-friendly tour

Interactive Program 1:30pm

Imagine, Write, Create!

Sponsors

AMP’s Family Days are supported by the generosity of the Comis Foundation and Torrington Savings Bank. The Teen Art Studio is made possible in part by the Torrington Savings Bank Foundation.

This solo exhibition marks Brewster’s return to public exhibition after a significant studio hiatus, shaped by the pandemic and the arrival of his two young children.

Spanning two to six feet in width, Brewster’s latest works are immersive and meditative, exploring vast, perhaps virtual, landscapes. These meticulously layered oil paintings hint at human presence through subtle traces—a balanced stone, a resting stick—evoking a haunting stillness. In his signature style, Brewster uses old-master techniques and translucent glazes to explore the tension between presence and absence, clarity and ambiguity. “Some of these paintings verge on the apocalyptic while others suggest eerie calm or quiet hope,” Brewster notes. “They balance loneliness and community, action and avoidance. They are tightly tied to the physicality and geometry of the canvas itself.”

Brewster studied at Yale University and received his MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has held solo exhibitions in New York City, North Carolina, and Newfoundland, and has participated in numerous curated group shows including Icons of the 21st Century in New York and Academy 2003 at Conner Contemporary in Washington, D.C. His work has been featured in New American Paintings and reviewed in publications such as ForbesLife and The National Post.

Embroidered Mini Owl Keychains: A Sewing Workshop for Adults

Unlock the hidden power of the Makerspace’s embroidery machine! You might have used this machine for monograms and other decorative stitching, but did you know that you can also use it to assemble projects like zipper pouches, stuffed animals, and more? Learn the basics of this crafting technique as you make an adorable mini owl keychain in this workshop. All supplies provided. Ages 18+. Registration Required.

https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/embroidered-mini-owl-keychains-adults/

Children aged 0-3 and their caregivers to invited to enjoy time in the Museum galleries for some art and history fun while practicing developmental, social, and mobility skills- all while the museum is closed to the public! A museum educator will facilitate storytime and 30 minutes of playtime in the galleries with an opportunity to mingle with other parents and caregivers.

Cost: $5 per child

A welcoming, drop-in teen art studio—where you can explore new materials, make friends, and grow as an artist.

Creative exploration and community go hand in hand at Teen Art Studio (TAS) for ages 13 to 18. Guided by a teaching artist, you can try new materials, develop your own ideas, and connect with others in a relaxed environment. It’s a space to grow as an artist and have fun doing it.

Come as you are. No pressure, just possibilities. 

Every Second Saturday of the month, the studio becomes a creative zone where you can try something new, meet people who get you, and see your ideas come to life—with guidance from a teaching artist and no pressure to be perfect.

Come once or as often as you like.

Teen Art Studio is a drop-in program, so you can come once or as often as you like. Many teens return month after month to build skills, portfolios, and friendships. Teaching artist Shana Bazelmans brings experience, guidance, and creative prompts to help your ideas take shape. It’s not just about making art—it’s about feeling seen and inspired.

Reserve your spot—it helps us prep materials, and you can still drop in if you decide last-minute.

What to Know

When: Every Second Saturday, 10:30am–1:30pm

Where: American Mural Project, 90 Whiting Street, Winsted, CT

Cost: $5 materials fee per session, or free with an AMP Student Membership ($25/year)

What’s included: All materials, mural exhibit admission, and access to Family Day activities

How to join: Reserve your spot—it helps us prep materials. Walk-ins are also welcome.

The Teen Art Studio 2025–26 Season

Every Second Saturday, 10:30am–1:30pm

September 13

October 11

November 8

December 13

January 10

February 14

March 14

April 11

May 9

June 13

AMP’s Teen Art Studio is one of the few drop-in teen art programs in Northwest Connecticut where young artists can explore painting, sculpture, and mixed media in a welcoming studio environment. Whether you're looking for teen art classes in CT or creative things to do for teens in Winsted, TAS offers a hands-on, community-based experience every Second Saturday—no prior experience needed.

Saturdays at 10:30 AM - Beginning September 6

Storytime & Stay to Play

All ages welcome!

Come to OWL for an all ages storytime in the children's room every Saturday at 10:30 then stay to play. In addition to our puppet theater, wooden blocks, and train set, we now have a dollhouse! We also have our ongoing Bluey BINGO with a fidget prize for winners. During September our craft table is home to model magic clay, as well as coloring sheets for younger children. And most importantly come in to browse our collection of print books, Nutmeg nominees, and Wonderbooks!

Free admission and programming on the Second Saturday of each month.

Access for All Initiative sponsored by Art Bridges Foundation

Free admission and programming on the Second Saturday of each month.

Enjoy the works of

Photographer Sarah Blodgett & Basket Weaver Tina Puckett

About the Artists 

Sarah Blodgett

Sarah Blodgett is a photographer from the Hudson Valley in New York. Born in New York City, daughter of a professional advertising photographer, she bought her first camera at the age of ten and has been shooting ever since. A commercial & portrait photographer professionally since 1993, her passion now lies with creating images of wildlife and natural areas. Her primary focus is on birds as well as landscapes, seascapes, still lives and florals. She also offers speaking programs to accompany her work with a focus on ecology and preservation of the natural world around us.

 https://westernconnecticut.blogspot.com/2025/07/art-lovers-covered-bridge-woven-hand_30.html

Tina Puckett

American Master Weaver Tina Puckett is a self-taught Artist. who has been weaving since 1981. For over 40 years the woven arts have been evolving and each one is indescribably dynamic and colorful. The character of each piece is an expression of Tina's imagination and her sense of color that she applies to the weaving and structural form. Throughout Tina’s career she has exhibited her woven arts at museums, art galleries, libraries and art shows. Also, has been featured in magazines, books, newspapers, TV and on different platforms on the web.

Artist Statement

My woven pieces from baskets to wall sculptures, ceiling hangers, to furniture has evolved and is the way I define myself as an artist, and as a woman. I am fulfilling my dreams that started out with my imagination as a set designer. My creative path took a turn. It was not set design—but the woven arts with its many forms and functions where I found the passion for my life’s work.

The natural beauty of Bittersweet always sparks my imagination and is at the heart of the many pieces I weave. My imagination guides all that I do and it has become very attuned to the harmony of shapes, forms, and colors of the vines and reeds. I am also influenced by the beauty of our natural world and wonder how to weave it.

My palette for color is very much influenced by this experience of growing up in South America. I mix my own dyes and enjoy building a palette for the reeds that will shape textures and forms with color into a

​ one of a kind woven art!

Join us for an hour of story time hosted in our Children's Section at Honeybee Books & Tea!

Our story selection is thoughtfully curated including Caldecott Honor books and Newberry Medal winners. Our staff brings excitement to reading through their storytelling, and all books that are read are available for purchase for you to bring the magic home. The readings can be curated by age group, offering an assortment of reading-level material.

For more information, visit our website or speak to an associate in-store.

Bismuth is a Boston-based artist known for her self-portrait photographs. Her work explores and challenges ideas surrounding identity and its fragile nature, politics and trans expression through a satirical and spontaneous approach. 

Recently, Bismuth has taken up oil painting as her primary medium, in which she creates numeric and interactive landscapes. 

Dismembered, showing at Peggy Mercury, will be her debut solo exhibit and will showcase her self-portrait images alongside painted works. Co-curated with James Boehmer and Gregory Fricke, the show will display Bismuth's current fascination with fragmentation and isolation, and so much more.

Peggy Mercury

Kent Barns

9 Maple Street, Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

IG @itspeggymercury

For more information email us at hithere@peggymercury.com

🎨 Art Show @ White Silo Winery in Sherman, CT

🗓 On view: September 5–28

🥂 Opening Reception: Sunday, September 7 | 2–4 PM

Get ready for a burst of bold color and creative energy in “Pouring with a Purpose”—a showcase of abstract acrylic art and photography by Christy Bonaiuto.

Christy’s work is all about movement, mood, and vibrant spontaneity, using poured acrylics, resin, and layered textures to create immersive, one-of-a-kind pieces that flow with emotion. Her abstract photography adds another dynamic layer to the show—capturing moments that feel both fleeting and timeless.

Stop by White Silo Winery, enjoy a glass of wine, and explore a diverse art show featuring local artist, Christy Bonaiuto. Come for the view—and leave with something beautiful.

✨ Free & open to the public

🛍️ Artwork available for purchase

Come for the pour. Stay for the art.

White Silo Winery

32 Rt. 37 East

Sherman, CT 06784

860.355.0271

Friday 11-6 PM | Saturday 11-6 PM | Sunday 11-6 PM

With lots of experience in the food industry, Rich will be here with Rich’s Wings and Things serving a variety of chicken meals and small bites!

Gather your photos, concert tickets, and other memorabilia to make scrapbook pages at The MATT! A workshop will be led to help participants create beautiful and cohesive layouts. Paper, decorations, and cutting tools will be provided. For all ages, and parents.

Non-Members – $10

Adults: $5

Adventure Passholders-$0

WPS Students – $0

Support provided by the American Savings Foundation, the Elisha Leavenworth Foundation;, the David, Helen and Marian Woodward Fund and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

Bald eagles were once so endangered that many considered whether to replace them as America’s national symbol. Today, you’ve probably seen more than one in the wild. Join presenter Ginny Apple, a Master Wildlife Conservationist with the Connecticut DEEP, to learn all about these magnificent birds of prey, their numbers in our state, and their contribution to our ecosystem. This FREE program is open to ages 10 and up.

Please register @harwintonlibrary.org/events

Work by area artists of paintings, hand pulled prints, photography, ceramics and weavings.

Docent led house tours of Miss Edith's Cottage at Topsmead run the second & fourth weekends of the month through October 12th, 2025. First Come, first served. Tours start at noon and run for approximately 30 minutes; last tour at 4:30 p.m. Free but donations are appreciated to support maintenance of cottage interior/exterior including gardens, the scholarship fund, and educational programming. Meet at the front door of the cottage. For GPS directions, designate Buell Road as your destination. We look forward to seeing you!

Life Changing Fiction: Saturday, September 13 at 12:00 PM

For Grades 6 and up

Registration is required

Join us for a pizza lunch and themed book talk. This month the theme is Life Changing Fiction–what book has made the biggest impact on your life, so far? Come ready to share your favorite reads with the group and then head home with a list of further reading possibilities.

Hosted by Amber Vlangas, MAT of Mindful Art and Sound

Peel back or build up your layers. Meet yourself with creativity, curiosity and compassion.

Join us for a creative 2-hour workshop where we’ll explore the parts of ourselves that are often left unspoken - through intuitive art-making, gentle sound meditation, reflection, and mindful presence. No art experience needed - just curiosity.

Together, we’ll use mixed media materials and meaningful prompts to create layered self-portraits that honor where we've been, where we are, and what we’re becoming.

• Gentle guided sound meditation 
• Collage-based artmaking (Mixed media)
• Reflective journaling + optional sharing
• Reflection cards to spark insight

Come as you are. Leave with a deeper connection to yourself.

All materials provided, participants are also welcome to bring photos, imagery or ephemera that is meaningful to them.

JCC Members $45

Non-Members $50

About Your Sound & Meditation Guide: 

Amber Vlangas, MAT is an artist, certified Meditation Specialist, Mindful and Meditative Art Teacher, Restorative Circle-keeper, and Sound Healer. She has always had a heart for holding space and helping others. Her work is grounded in the truth that every person has the ability to access their power, potential, and creativity when given the safety and encouragement they need to do so. She invites people into accessible and mindful art activities, guided meditation, music making, and sound journeying to help them relax, renew, and open pathways to enhanced mind-body connection, imagination, self-awareness and overall balance. Amber holds certifications accredited by the International Mindfulness and Meditation Alliance, The Mindful Art Alliance, The Meditation Organization and the Complementary Medical Association.

Gather your photos, concert tickets, and other memorabilia to make scrapbook pages at The MATT! A workshop will be led to help participants create beautiful and cohesive layouts. Paper, decorations, and cutting tools will be provided. For ages 10-18 and parents.

Non-Members – $10

Members- $10

Adventure Passholders-$0

WPS Students – $0

Support provided by the American Savings Foundation, the Elisha Leavenworth Foundation;, the David, Helen and Marian Woodward Fund and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

🍂 Gallery 25 Fall Art Show: Falling for Art– Opening Reception

📍 Saturday, Sept 13 | 3–5 PM

The town will be buzzing with Gilmore Girls excitement—and Gallery 25 is joining the celebration with the opening of our Fall Art Show!

Stop by the historic train station gallery for an afternoon of local art, festive energy, and community spirit. Enjoy stunning new work from our talented member artists—just in time for fall. Whether you're an art lover, a collector, or just curious, this is the perfect chance to discover something beautiful (and maybe take it home)!

Falling For Art Show is on display until Nov 23!

✨ Free & open to the public

🛍️ Artwork available for purchase

The Fine Arts Connection of Thomaston, Inc., in conjunction with the Railroad Museum of New England, will hold a unique event on Sunday, September 14th from 12-5 pm: a Train Car Arts Show! The public is invited to an opening reception on Saturday, September 13th, from 3:30-5:30 pm to preview some of the submissions from our Ten-2-One Artists, our Camera Club, and our Creative Writing Group. Music will be provided by Tom Turci of Southington. The event will be open to the public on Sunday, and walk-ins are cordially invited. For further information, visit the website at www.thomastonfinearts.com.

Join us for our largest fundraising event of the year!

This year, we host a concert on the grounds of the Bryan Memorial Town Hall, featuring rhythm & blues music by Personal Touch.

For select ticket tiers, a reception will follow with refreshments and hors d’oeuvres at the park.

Tickets starting at $10 are on sale now!

Saturday, September 13 | 6–8 PM

Gallery 25 | Historic Train Station, New Milford, CT

Back by popular demand! Join local favorite Liz for a fun-filled evening of painting, sipping, and creativity as we bring the iconic Gilmore Girls Stars Hollow Gazebo to life on canvas. This class was a hit at the last convention—and now it’s your turn to paint this beloved TV landmark!

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned painter, Liz will guide you step-by-step in a relaxed and welcoming setting. All materials are provided—and yes, so is the wine! Just come ready to create, sip, and have a great time.

🎟️ Space is limited—reserve your seat now at https://square.link/u/JeB4pMc6 or visit  Gallery25CT.com.

Come for the wine. Stay for the art. Paint the town—literally!

H.M.S. Pinafore in One Act, and G&S Audience Favorites

Tickets: $35-50, Under 19 Free

Musicmountain.org or 860-824-7126 for tickets and more information

Saturday, September 13th, 2nd Home is thrilled to welcome back The Sons of Astro, with Mike Cobb on guitar, vocals, and harmonica, Rip Westmoreland on guitar,

mandolin, and vocals, Matt Statler on guitar & vocals, Ben Herzog on bass and vocals, and Charlie Shaw on drums. These guys are fun!! We are sure this will be an evening of great music. Come down and enjoy!

For reservations (encouraged but not required) call 860-238-4500 or email us at momanddad@2ndhomelounge.com

See our complete event list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/events/

2nd Home Lounge

524 Main Street, Winsted

2ndhomelounge.com

Join our mailing list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/email-sign-up/

Do you know the stories of how your ancestors came to America? What about the ones left behind? NOTES TO THE MOTHERLAND is a spellbinding psychological thriller that unearths the hidden experiences of Paul Rajeckas’ family during WWII, turning one son’s search for his immigrant past into a gripping theatrical journey.

Playing a multitude of characters in this riveting one-man show, Rajeckas blends physical theater with a darkly incisive portrait of the 21st-century immigrant experience. This transformative performance brings the audience center stage into a powerful exploration of identity, history, and the secrets that shape us—an unmissable experience for anyone seeking to understand who we are and how we got here.

Sewing by hand like troops and women had to do in 1776 without lights is Doing History! Come learn how to sew a purse like the men wore or a pocket that women wore under their skirts during the Rev. War era.

Landscapes are a wonderful subject for paintings to rekindle a memory or try to capture the beauty of the world. Join us for Art Play Day, when we’ll take those typical painted landscapes off the wall and replace them with glass and fiber instead! Recommended for ages 16 and up.

Your registration includes:

*Two 2.5 hour workshops

*Morning coffee, tea and treats

*Art goody bag

*Lunch

*Time to chat, share, and reflect with fellow artists and attendees. 

Inspired by the iconic Dragonfly Inn of Stars Hollow, this playful and creative painting experience lets you pour your heart into a one-of-a-kind abstract dragonfly! Using fluid acrylics and pour painting techniques, you'll create your own vibrant and whimsical dragonfly masterpiece—no experience needed. This drop-in event is perfect for Gilmore Girls fans, art lovers, and anyone who just wants to have some colorful fun.

✨ All materials provided

💫 All Ages Welcome!

Drop in anytime 9 AM–Noon

Registration required

Register now at https://square.link/u/JJEGqdXo or visit Gallery25CT.com

Swing by between 9 AM and noon—paint at your own pace and let the colors fly!

EXHIBIT TO FEATURE THREE LOCAL ARTISTS

(New Preston, Connecticut) – The Smithy Café & Market is pleased to announce an art exhibit to be displayed September 1 to October 31, 2025, titled Perception and Perspective: Three Artists-Becky Butler, Sandra Daignault and Lucy C. Pierpont.

Join us for a collaboration of three women and their varying forms of artwork, style, and perspectives.

The three artists have painted together for several years using a variety of mediums.They have formed friendships and enjoy working together while sharing ideas and support.

Becky Butler founded the not-for-profit, Arts Escape in Southbury in 2012. Arts Escape’s mission was to focus on arts education for adults. After witnessing firsthand how art created camaraderie and joy with those who participated, it was time for Becky to do the same. She retired in 2022 to follow her own art journey. She has been taking painting classes in Abstract, Pastel and Acrylics for the past two years and is excited to keep learning and exploring new mediums. Her pastel, Tethered Beauty, was accepted into a National Pastel show and she also won Best in Show for mixed media in Roxbury’s Art at the Meeting House show in 2024 for Somewhere Out There. Becky lives in Woodbury, Connecticut with her husband Paul.

“I love working in pastels – the colors are limitless and immediate. My pastel paintings are primarily painted realistically. Breaking the barriers of painting realistically has been a challenge. My love for color has recently launched my exploration in creating abstract work. Using color and mark making intuitively is exciting and challenging as well as inspiring. During my exploration I found the medium of oil and cold wax. While having no expectations as to the outcome of my work, my eyes have opened to a whole new world of creativity. I love the freedom of experimentation and the joy of playing. I want my work to reflect my emotional insight into today’s world while uncovering the beauty that still exists,”  explains Becky.

Sandra Daignault, a Woodbury resident, was the Fine Arts Director at Arts Escape, Inc in Southbury, CT and teaches classes in acrylic painting. Her artwork has been shown in galleries and organizations across CT (Stamford, Litchfield, Washington, New Milford, Brookfield, Bantam, Ridgefield, West Hartford, Southbury, Rowayton, Newtown), as well as having a permanent piece at the US Headquarters of Jägermeister in Westchester County. In addition, she has published two books of poetry with illustrations and has recently published a climate change fiction novel. Visit her website at sdaignaultfineart.com.

“My painting process is all about creating an open mind and letting go. While I often do not have a predetermined subject I am always influenced by my fascination with our place in the universe. Letting go of preconceived forms allows for the mystery and essence that makes up everything around us. While my influences are abstract artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, contemporary Peter Wileman as well as English romantic artist (JW Turner) I strive to create from the words of favorite poets (Pablo Neruda, Wislawa Szymborska, Mary Oliver). It will please me if viewers respond with wonder and wanting( not knowing what),” states Sandra.

Woodbury resident, Lucy C. Pierpont has worked in the marketing/graphic design field ever since graduating from Hartwick College as an art major. She has created art her whole life and has had her photographs and paintings displayed in exhibits at the Mattatuck Museum, Majors Inn, Hartwick College, Oneonta Art Association, Kent Art Association, Washington Art Association, Burnham Library, Kent Memorial Library Art at the Meetinghouse, Ridgefield Art Walk, Flanders Nature Center and now, The Smithy. She currently works part-time with the Kent Memorial Library and the Washington Depot Office of Klemm Real Estate doing graphic design & public relations. Her artwork can be viewed at lucypierpont.carrd.co. Her graphic designs for the Kent Memorial Library have been the recipient of eight Connecticut Library Association Publicity Awards in recognition of design, marketing, and publicity created to promote a Library service or event.

“From my earliest recollections, art has always been in the forefront. I chose the graphic design route and spent my career in it. Now art embodies my life- through friends, work, play, and travel!” claims Lucy.

Please join us for a reception on Saturday, October 11 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. For more information, please call the Smithy at (860) 868-9003 or go to their website at thesmithymarket.com.

10 Main Street New Preston CT 06777

#         #         #         #

caption: Heat by Lucy C. Pierpont, Parade by Sandra Daignault, and Opening Night by Becky Butler are a few of many paintings in an exhibit titled Perception and Perspective: Three Artists-Becky Butler, Sandra Daignault and Lucy C. Pierpont. The show will be on display from September 1 to October 31, 2025.

The Judy Black Memorial Park and Gardens is pleased to present an art exhibition, “A Frayed Edge,” featuring the works of Stace Dillard. This show is on view beginning Friday, August 29.

An opening reception will be held at the park on Saturday, August 30 from 3 to 5 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

Dillard’s collage work is composed of vibrant, abstract mixed-media compositions characterized by geometric structures, overlapping elements, and a layering of colors, patterns, and textures. 

This show will remain on view through Sunday, September 21. Check our social media for weekly open hours: @judyblackpark on Instagram and Facebook.

Online exhibition curated by Lani Ming Holloway with artwork by Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Laura Barr, Jordann McKenna, and Benoît Trimborn

exhibition dates:  August 1 – September 30, 2025, on www.kbfa.com

Stories told in light and silence

Poetry will make me violent

Violets outside our yard…

Why does the world have to be so hard?

Encompassing the hidden truths

 Of things unseen in what we view.

-       LMH

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is pleased to present the online exhibition Stories told in light and silence curated by Lani Ming Holloway featuring Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Laura Barr, Jordann McKenna, and Benoît Trimborn.

Maya Tihtiyas Attean is a Wabanaki artist raised on the Penobscot Reservation in Maine. Excerpted from her artist statement: “Through the lens of Wabanaki history and culture, my photographs intertwine forgotten truths within the landscape of what is now called Maine. My work explores the deep, complex relationships between the land, its people, and the lasting impact of colonization. The energy embedded in the landscape reverberates through my creations and reveals the scars left on both the earth and our bodies. My work invites contemplation on occupation and ownership, prompting reflection on who exploits the land and how systems of oppression have disrupted its balance.”

Maya’s work expresses the dichotomy the artist exists within, marrying mediums and different cultural techniques. “Does the Land Remember?” is an ongoing series photographing landscapes that hold the history of devastating events of colonization. The power of that residuum is felt in the images in a supernatural way, as the dualism of her lived experience is pronounced in the contrast of light and dark. Sunlight shimmers through the leaves as bright stars overhead look down upon the land, a fire burns. Maya’s work calls us to remember that nature feels the spirits.

Maya Tihtiyas Attean lives and works in Portland, Maine or Machigonne. She earned a BFA in Photography from Maine College of Art & Design, Portland. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME and the Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, ME.

Laura Barr’s work explores impermanence through oil paintings and oil pastel drawings on paper capturing passing moments in color, reflection on water, and light. Simplifying forms and illuminating the scale of special glimmers, her work considers the preservation of water and the protection of our environment. In Laura’s paintings in the exhibition, fireflies gleam in a starlit field and remind us that fireflies may not continue to glow on our planet, while a surfer catches the last evening wave the ocean offers, an Aurora Borealis dances in the night sky.

Laura Barr lives by the Thimble Islands in Branford, Connecticut. She earned her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA and a BA in Fine Arts from Tufts University in Medford, MA and has studied at Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy.

From Ithaca, NY, Jordann McKenna paints and photographs the quiet beauty in everyday life in work that contemplates mundanity and the softly fleeting feeling within light and shadows around her. In lushly applied oil paint, flames flicker and shadows play across the scene. Jordann’s work in this exhibition reflects the peaceful, ephemeral moods of interiors and intimate still lifes, either staged or spontaneous. Jordann McKenna works from photographs and from memory to create images that serve to process rather than recreate, expressing not only what is seen but what is felt, and celebrating the beauty in the ordinary.

Jordann McKenna earned a BS in Visual Arts from State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY, and an MFA from Maine College of Art & Design in Portland, ME. She lives and works in Portland, ME.

Born in Strasbourg, France, and trained as an architect, Benoît Trimborn describes his work as “contemporary impressionism”. Viewing the world as an architect, Benoît’s large-scale oil paintings evoke what his artist statement calls the “morphology of the landscapes… like an architect, I see in it a breath, a light, a rhythm, which alone can constitute a principle of beauty. The elements represented compose atmospheres of which I try to faithfully convey the impression, as the musician faithfully follows the score. In this process, the contemplative attitude prevails, much more than the adventurous attitude. No message, no story should disturb the projection of the viewer...”

In Benoît’s meticulously painted large-scale landscapes, the absence of the figure instills a quietude in the story while light is the present form in all its magic. Reflections play like a musical score on the surface of the water and golden glimmers illuminate the forest and emanate from a sunset sky.

Benoît Trimborn’s work is in the permanent collection of Galerie Ariel Sibony in Paris, France, Absolute Art Gallery in Bruges, Belgium, and Galerie Bertrand Gillig in Strasbourg, France. He lives and works in Strasbourg, France.

Please contact Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquiries.

Shipping is available worldwide throughout the exhibition.