A Year in New England: Art & Horses Weekend

There were a couple of openings leading up to the weekend which we would like to share. Wednesday night we were at New Britain's Downtown Gallery for a Sci-fi, cosmic, etc. show that was lots of fun:

A. Muse

Elliot Vallez

Nicki LaPorte

And on Thursday we went to downtown Hartford and the Capital Community College for a show in the Conrad Mallett Gallery:

Joseph Chandler

Ron Thompson

Andres Chaparro, Jr.

A few people told us that the New Britain Museum of American Art was their favorite in the area, so we were anxious to visit and the new Tides of Provincetown show was all we needed.

Situated on the edge of Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Walnut Park, the building is remarkably subtle, fitting into the landscape. Perhaps my eye was distracted by all the sculpture surrounding the Museum, with Don Quixote to greet us.

by Nathaniel Kaz, 1941

As the name says, this museum is for American Art and its displayed in galleries of early American, Hudson River School, Impressionism, and “Academics” on the first floor. The hallway walls were filled with the collection of Illustrations and the floor crowded with sculpture by Gutzon Borglum. There was also a special exhibit of James Wyeth’s drawings of Rudolf Nureyev.

Hanging above the stairway is Blue and Beyond Blue by Dale Chihuly, but dominating the stairs was The Gravity of Power by Lisa Hoke. (below, part of Chihuly to the lower left corner))

Upstairs was the Contemporary Art collection as well as the Thomas Hart Benton murals (below) and the special show, Tides of Provincetown. One other feature of the museum is their “Art Benches” located throughout the building and on the grounds.

From the start I noticed that a good number of painters and sculptors represented were women, so decided to present to you what we saw while highlighting the ladies.

Beginning outside, there were sculptures by women:

Prelude by Marianna Pineda, 1957

Indicate by Nancy Graves, 1982

The Evangelist by Nancy Caroline Lee, 1980

Sacella by Carol Davidson, 1999

Inside there were paintings by:

Esphyr Slobodkina

Judith Schaechter

Lois Tarlow

Martha Walter

Mary Cassatt

Morning, Noon and Night by Jane Stuart, daughter of Gilbert

Phyllis Berman

And even an Art Bench:

Grizzy Bear bench by Judy Kensl

Plus a special display of work by Catherine Cabanias.

The Tides of Provincetown exhibit featured some of the biggest names in American Art. The art colony at P'town is the oldest continuous colony in America, has, of course, gone through changes since 1899. This was well expressed through the work of those who worked there. Like a parade of famous artists: Childe Hassam, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Max Ernst, Edward Hopper, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol.

Impressionists gave way to Modernists to Surrealists to Expressionists to Realists to Pop to Abstractists. The show will travel a bit following the New Britain exhibition.

Again, I couldn’t help but notice the extraordinary number of women included among the residents of the Provincetown Art Colony. Some wives, some daughters, some independent women. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photos, so here is a list of artists whose work I found:

Margery Ryerson, Marion Hawthorne, Lucy L’Engle, Blanche Lazzell, Sky Powers, Nancy Whorf, Edna Hopkins, Ada Chaffee, Marguerite Zorach, Selina Trieff, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Lillian Orlowsky, Mary Hackett, Elspeth Halvorsen, Anne Packard, Kathryn Smith, Danielle Mailer (Norman’s daughter), Tabitha Vevers, Robena Malicoat, Susan Baker, and Penelope Jencks.

Outside they were playing cricket in the sun. After a visit to the rose garden in Walnut Park we headed south to Meriden for the opening of a show at the CaRo Gallery. Lenore Rodriguez has carved a gallery out from an old factory that has been developed as a center for small businesses. Her guest was Riccardo Roig of Hoboken, New Jersey. The charming young man who doesn’t want to get married right now and sold 360 paintings since September, has a great view of Manhattan out of his apartment window, so has painted lots of NYC cityscapes, as well as a few other subjects:

Saratoga Raceway opened for the season on the 22nd, so this was the first weekend races and the venerable track was packed. Founded in 1863, this facility opened in 1909 with the original track still being used for training and warmup. It was also the 20th Hat’s Off to Saratoga contest, so just because we wore special hats for the occasion, many people greeted us and complimented our finery.

We explored the track and discovered you couldn’t get very close to the horses and they spent little time in the paddock, so Marie wasn’t able to do any sketching. We watched the jockeys get helped up onto their mounts and made our way to trackside to find a space along the rail. The races alternated between grass and dirt, and, as always, was fun to watch. While Marie would pick out a horse, we didn’t place any bets.

Autograph Hounds

There were a variety of refreshments available and we chose a very good lobster roll for just $10. Who ever heard of a bargain at the racetrack? People watching, as always, was great.

Man eating fingers.

Then it was Milinary Madness as 175 contestants faced-off between races for prizes and trophies . The Kreative Kids division was after the 2nd race, with the Fashionably Saratoga after the 3rd and Uniquely Saratoga (our group) after the 4th.