Flanders 50th Celebratory Art Exhibit

Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust will kick-off its 50th anniversary celebration with an exhibit of artwork that has been created by 12 artists whose work was featured on the invitations to its annual auctions. A featured painting by Chris Magadini for Flanders’ Fall 2012 auction will also be on display.

            The exhibit will be at the Woodbury Library Gallery from June 6 to the end of June.  The public is invited to a wine and cheese reception with the artists and collectors of the featured art on Saturday, June 9 from 2:30-4:30 pm.

            In addition to paintings won at the auctions and loaned for this exhibit, there will also be an additional painting by each featured artist that will be available for sale.

The featured artists include Chris Magadini, Michael Remington Patterson, Robert Lenz, Julie Hickcox, Vincent Giarrano, Tom Adkins, Anda Styler, Robert Andrew Parker, Marija McCarthy, Peter Seltzer, Tom Yost, Melody Asbury and Robert Crawford.

            The Artists

            A former illustrator, Chris Magadini’s painting career spans four decades. An avid plein air painter, he devotes himself full time to fine arts painting and conducting workshops. He is a member of the distinguished New England Plein Air Painters group.

            A full-time painter, Michael Patterson works in watercolor, oil and graphics and exhibits widely throughout the United States. The grandson of American painter Howard Ashman Patterson, his work is in over 1,200 private collections. Robert Lenz is a prolific painter and print maker and his work has been exhibited at Silvermine Guild Gallery, the Paris-New-York-Kent Gallery and the Morrison Gallery in Kent, Ct.

            An accomplished and award-wining watercolorist and acrylic painter, Julie Hickcox is well established in local art organizations. She has exhibited her work at the Salmagundi Club in New York City, New Haven Paint and Clay Club, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.  After a successful career as an illustrator, Vincent Giarrano has established himself as a fine art painter. His work in figure and portraiture is exceptional. He is represented by Susan Powell Fine Art in CT, Grenning Gallery in NY, and Waterhouse Gallery in CA.

            A masterful local painter, Tom Adkins captures the atmospheric moods of New England scenes. His work is much sought after in the area, and is in many corporate and private collections. A great lover of New England barns and an avid plein air painter, Anda Styler depicts the joys of Connecticut seasons. She has exhibited her work at galleries all along the eastern coast of the United States.

            Robert Andrew Parker is a seasoned, master artist whose work is collected by prestigious galleries and museums such as The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, all in NYC.  A Yugoslav-born interpretive realist painter, Marija McCarthy has a long history of teaching and has exhibited her work on five continents. Her work is in the New Britain Museum of American Art as well as in various private and corporate collections.

            Tom Yost is a celebrated landscape realist with an exquisite eye for the sublime in nature and his work is represented by Behnke Doherty Gallery in Washington, CT.  Peter Seltzer is a renowned pastelist and oil painter and a member of the very exclusive Allied Artists of America. His work is in the collections of the Butler Institute of American Art and the New Britain Museum of American Art.

            A beloved, award-winning local painter of animals and landscapes, Melody Asbury is a member of the prestigious International Society of Animal Artists. She is a frequent exhibitor in the best-known local art institutions. A well-known illustrator of artfully painted book covers, Robert Crawford’s work has been featured on the cover of L.L. Bean’s Christmas catalog. In addition, he was commissioned by the Bank of America to do a mural for their flag ship building in Chicago.

            This exhibit represents the best local creative work and has been assembled to celebrate fifty years of continual support of the arts by Flanders, which was founded by Natalie Van Vleck, an accomplished early modernist painter, gentlewoman farmer and lover of nature. For more information on the exhibit, call Flanders Nature Center at 203-263-3711, x10 or visit www.flandersnaturecenter.org.