La Dernière Post

Spring came early to Connecticut. Croci, daffodils, tulip magnolias, forsythia, and a host of flowering trees, to delight the eye and nose. A wonderful way to close our stay in the Northeast before heading home to Gainesville.

There was one more show at St. Joseph’s Art Gallery on Thursday evening. Fittingly, it was entitled: Founded in Friendship: The Legacy of the Andrew J. Kelly Collection. I have previously made mention of the late Reverend’s collection. And while we had already seen many of the paintings and prints being displayed, there were a few new ones for us as well:

Kansas Farmyard by Thomas Hart Benton.

 At Stage at Sharkey's by George Bellows

Ice Cream Cones #2 by Isabel Bishop, 1945

 The Dance Rehearsal by William Glackens

Rochelle by Robert Brackman

Autumn Sun by Robert Hallowell, 1928

Bathers by Milton Avery

 Mandolin Player by Milton Avery

Flower Arrangement by Robert Hallowell

There was also a secondary exhibition called: A Short Season: Childhood Depicted, with artwork featuring children:

Merry-Go-Round by Milton Avery

Woman and Child on the Roof by John Sloan, 1914

 Down at the Corner by John Sloan, 1913

The Children by George Luks, ca 1905

Before we left, Ann Sievers, director and curator, recognized me and thanked me for providing them with an accurate date of death for Aurelia Caloenesco, an artist we discovered there. By the way, Robert Hallowell (see paintings above) was Aurelia’s husband and founder of New Republic Magazine.

Araby by Carol Kreeger Davidson at St. Joseph

And one more show at ArtSpace on Saturday, called Beyond the Gate. It was an invitational show curated by Clinton Deckert. There was a terrific crowds with good food and drink. The sister of James Dimaio baked three fabulous cheesecakes and a neighbor of Clinton’s was serving his homebrew, Irish Red.

James Demaio

Jordan Deschene

Clinton Deckert

Silas Finch (middle)

Stanwyck Cromwell

Joshua Smith

Before leaving we visited Ethan Boisvert’s studio to see his latest. He’s working on fifty paintings and hopes to move to Brooklyn. Best of luck, Ethan.

The Silpe Gallery at the University of Hartford had a Monday opening for their show of work by freshmen students in the Foundations study. Lots of really good work, but they chose to put the instructor’s name on the artwork’s identification rather than the students. Here are a few artists and pieces:

On Tuesday, Mark took us as well as Kathy and Fred out for dinner at the Mill on the River restaurant in South Windsor to celebrate the end of Marie’s year with the Connecticut DOT. We had champagne and delicious food. I got the swordfish and “apfel” strudel. Kathy got a tiara.

We took out our neighbors, Evan and Greg, to Los Adobes, our neighborhood Mexican restaurant on Wednesday. They were great neighbors and we’ll miss them. Marie and Evan got the posole sopa and I had the lamb sopa (which was actually a plate full of lamb and a bowl of broth). Greg got the super flautas, since he plays flute for the Hartford Symphony. It was a lovely evening.

Marie’s last day at the CTDOT was Thursday and they had a special luncheon with speeches and awards to the many teams involved in her project. Very emotional. I shot some video but will have to wait to add it to this post as the requisite cables have been packed.

Kathy & Ron

Kathy & Julie

Core Team

Jose

Pall

Then we went to the Joseloff Gallery at U of Hartford for an exhibition of student work. Another terrific show. Here are a few pieces we liked.

Atlas by Megan Spaniol, 2011

Bite Me by Jasmine Gonzales, 2012

Banana Boat by Chaz Fernades, 2011

I also visited three Hartford cemeteries. I previously mentioned a trip to Cedar Hill cemetery (created in 1863 by landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann, who also designed Bushnell Park), but had to go back to get photos of the final resting places for:

artist William Glackens

Katherine Hepburn

And then I learned of two more on the north side of Hartford. The Spring Grove Cemetery (founded in 1845) to find the grave of landscape artist Frederic Church:

Just down Main Street is the Old North Cemetery (first burial in 1807) to find the final resting places for:

landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted

museum founder Daniel Wadsworth

Just to complete my tour of Hartford cemeteries, I should mention the Ancient Burial Grounds in downtown Hartford (begun in 1640) has some wonderful old stones:

And so this is the conclusion of this blog. Our year in Hartford was certainly memorable and probably not to be equaled. If Marie takes any more year-long assignments, the bar has been set pretty high. She had a great experience doing the implementation at CTDOT and we had so many wonderful adventures. Someone at Thursday’s luncheon asked me what the favorite thing we did and I was stumped for an answer. We loved it all and will miss it.