299 West Avenue, in Mathews Park, Norwalk CT 06850
203.899.7999 / info@contemprints.org / www.contemprints.org
Hours: M-Sat., 9 AM–5 PM & Sun. 12–5 PM / Feb. 15: 12-5 PM

The gallery reception for the annual juried members’ exhibition is on
Thurs., Feb. 4, 4-7 PM
Refreshments are served. Open to the public.

The exhibition runs from Jan. 28–Mar. 6
View over 100 original prints from artist/members of CCP.
All printmaking techniques are represented.

Experience. Learn. Enjoy.

Nationally-recognized artist William P. Duffy will conduct a workshop titled “Landscape Painting in Oil” from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, January 30 and 31, at the Rowayton Arts Center (RAC) at 145 Rowayton Avenue. Reservations are required and can be made by calling the Arts Center at 203-866-2744. The fee is $230.00.

According to Joanne Roy, the RAC education director, “We are pleased to be able to present this workshop by William Duffy, an outstanding painter who has been the subject of articles in Sea History, U.S Art, Art Business News, Fine Art Connoisseur and American Art Collector.”

Duffy is a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists, member of New England Plein Air Painters and artist member of the Copley Society. His honors include Awards of Excellence from the Oil Painters of America and three Mystic International Exhibitions. His works can be found in private collections throughout the United States and several foreign countries. For more information visit the web site at www.williampduffy.com.

The trials and tribulations of senior year are explored during “Coming of Age,” a new rock musical set in an all-girls school written and directed by Samantha Kulish. The world premiere of this show will be the Senior Project for 11 long-time Crystal Theatre high school students — Stephen DesRochers, Kim Fusci, Emily Katz, Jessica Labbadia, Nicole Monahan, Nina Negron, Shelby Spezzano, Courtney Thomas, Jason Tyler of Norwalk; Allie Shapiro and Victoria Esposito of Stamford).

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 6, and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 7, in the Crystal‘s Performing Arts Center, Bayview and Hillside Avenues, South Norwalk. Tickets are $12.00 adults; $10.00 seniors; $7.00 children aged 16 and younger. Tickets can be purchased on-line and directions to the theater are available at www.crystaltheatre.org.

“Coming of Age” focuses on the lives of nine female high school seniors and their imminent move to college. “Along the way,” says Kulish, “the girls learn lessons about friendship and responsibility and begin discovering who they really are. The professional rivalries of two male teachers spike up the action in the play.”

Demonstrations by renowned portrait painter Karl Soderlund (Sunday, January 17), Susan Snider (Saturday, January 23), who has exhibited her work at the Handweavers’ Guild of Connecticut Biennial Show, and award-winning watercolor artist Christy Gallagher (Sunday, January 24) will be presented in conjunction with “Artists and Their Mentors,” the current exhibition at the Rowayton Arts Center. Each demonstration will be from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Admission to the demonstrations and to the Arts Center Gallery at 145 Rowayton Avenue is free. The RAC Gallery is open from 12:00-5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:00-4:00 p.m. on Sundays. For information call 203-866-2744.
Soderlund, who will teach two six-week sessions of “Painting Principles for All Levels,” is sought-after artist for original works and commissioned paintings. His work hangs in more than 250 public and private collections, including the Heisman Trophy portrait collection.

Snider, who will teach “Weaving Pictures” in March, learned to weave more than 35 years ago as an exchange student in Sweden and has studied weaving in Denmark. She is active in the Handweavers’ Guild of Connecticut and is a member of the Handweavers’ Guild of America.

Gallagher, who has taught watercolor classes at RAC for more than 15 years, also has taught at the Lyme Academy and the National Academy in New York. She attended Cooper Union and her paintings have been exhibited In Connecticut, New York, Maine, France and Italy.

High quality artwork will be on display in the 23rd annual Walter Brooks Memorial Watercolor Exhibit at the Rowayton Arts Center, 145 Rowayton Avenue, from January 31-February 21. Award winners selected by Sophia Gevas, director of The Gallery of Contemporary Art at Sacred Heart University, will be announced during an opening day reception from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Thereafter, the show will be on display from 12:00-5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1:00-4:00 p.m. on Sundays.

Walter Brooks, who died in 1987, was a commercial artist and graphic designer. He is best known for a series of books on painting techniques and designs for at least a half dozen United States postage stamps, including an 8-cent San Juan commemorative and a 13-cent Indian head. Brooks was president of the Society of Illustrators and a member of the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylics. He and his wife, Lois, became members of the Rowayton Arts Center in the early 1960s. The Walter Brooks Memorial Fund, his friends at the Shore and Country Club and Lois Brooks established the Fairfield Watercolor Group.

“Artists and Their Mentors” are spotlighted in an exhibit at the Rowayton Arts Center Gallery at 145 Rowayton Avenue through January 24. RAC gallery hours are 12:00-5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:00-4:00 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is free. For information call 203-866-2744.

Works featured in the annual show are by Rowayton Arts Center teachers and students (from award-winning artists to beginners) who participated in RAC classes. Artwork by RAC workshop leaders William P. Duffy of Whitinsville, MA, William McCarthy of Hamden and Pamela Williams of South Berwick, ME, also will be on display. All of the teachers are award-winning artists. They are Maralyn Adlin of New Haven, Robert Baxter of Westport, Frank Bruckmann of New Haven, Gallagher of Bridgeport, Anne McCormick of Rowayton, Charles Ray of Redding, Soderlund of Fairfield, Susan Snider of Norwalk and Joanne Roy of Bridgeport.

How might desires and taboos shape a person’s ability to imagine? What role does technology play in wish fulfillment? The Art:21 documentary “Fantasy” explores these questions in the work of four artists Jeff Koons, Mary Heilmann, Florian Maier-Aichen, and Cao Fei, whose works defy convention and transport the audience to unreal worlds and altered states of consciousness. With works at times hallucinatory, irreverent, and sublime, each of these artists pursues a vision first held in the mind’s eye.

This episode of the Peabody Award-winning series Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century will be screened on Thursday, February 11, at 7:00 p.m. at The Rowayton Library, 33 Highland Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06853. The evening, which will include refreshments and a participatory art activity, is hosted by The Rowayton Library and The Rowayton Arts Center in partnership with Art:21, Inc. as part of its Art21 Access ’09 initiative. For information call (203) 838-5038.

For more information about this episode, the featured artists and Art 21, visit the web site at www.art21.org.

Join me for my Opening Reception of Paintings and Printmaking

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
6:30pm – 8:30pm

Norwalk Seaport Association Hosts

Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival

(Still from “Sand Dancer,” one of the films that will be shown on Friday, January 29, 2010, during the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Tour.  The event will be at the Dolce Norwalk Center and is hosted by the Norwalk Seaport Association.)

Films with humor, adventure, extraordinary scenery, inspiration and more will be featured during the 2010 Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Tour hosted by the Norwalk Seaport Association on Friday, January 29. The festival, which is supported by grants from Patagonia Westport and The Sounds Conservancy, will be at the Dolce Norwalk Center, 32 Weed Avenue in Norwalk, CT.

This year’s event includes an after-school screening from 4:00-5:30 p.m. plus an evening screening from 7:00-10:00. In addition to viewing diverse films from around the world that focus on protecting natural resources and wild places, attendees can inspect a gallery of photographs by students in the Seaport Association’s Nature Photography classes and peruse environmental displays. Reservations can be made on-line at www.seaport.org or by calling 203-838-9444.

Films that will appeal to youngsters have been selected for the after-school screening. They range in length from 1-9 minutes and include animated films like “Gorilla in the Greenhouse: Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and “Wombat” along with regular features like “Chickens of the Sea” and “Once Upon a Tide.” The $10.00 admission fee includes a special film festival membership in the Norwalk Seaport Association.

Refreshments will be served at the evening screening. The highlights include “Red Gold,” an award-winning 55-minute feature film. Other films, which range in length from 2-29 minutes, include “I Met the Walrus,” which weaves together “a cascading flood of multi-pronged animation” and the 1969 interview taped with John Lennon by a 14-year-old Beatles fanatic.  Among the other films are “Sand Dancer,” in which a New Zealand beach is the canvas on which Peter Donnelly creates vast art works that are washed away by the tide, and “The Last Descent,” which follows a group of world-class whitewater kayakers to some of the worlds most amazing rivers  … descending them, possibly, for the last time. The evening admission fee of $25.00 for individuals and $40.00 for couples includes door prize tickets, special film festival membership in the Norwalk Seaport Association and a subscription to E –The Environmental Magazine, which is published in Norwalk.

All films were selected from the 2009 Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival that is produced by the South Yuba River Citizens League and held each January in Nevada City, CA. Directions to the Dolce Norwalk Center and a description of all of the films is at www.seaport.org.

“DESIGN & PHOTOGRAPHY” Final Weekend DEC 18-20 Fri 6-9pm, S/S 1-5pm

WHat’s up: KAREN FORD’s functional Porcelain Tableware with melted glass inlay and JEANNE MELILLO’s unique Table Runners, TOM MEZZANOTTE’s extra-ordinary tintypes, MARJORIE WOLFE’s minimal landscapes, DRU NADLER’s ethereal dress series….plus fresh samples of Japanalia’s hand-made designer clothing on sale, Sue Brown Gordon’s jewelry, Mike Dennan’s “faux-a’s”…

Sue Brown Gordon will be at the gallery on Saturday, Dec. 19th ONLY, from 1-5pm, with a super sale of her jewelry, discounted for collectors, before she heads south for the winter….stay tuned for more visions from creative minds let loose in 2010!…See you soon in SoNo! Dennis

22 Haviland Street Gallery is located at #22 Haviland St. in historic downtown South Norwalk, CT. 06854, in a 19th c. house (it’s the 7th house on the right) across from the Haviland Street Parking Deck – (parking fee is $1/hr). On-street parking in the area is FREE after 6pm & on Sundays. (203) 852-6727 for info.