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Fine Artists, Artisans Featured at Arts Festival, Group Show

Fine artists and artisans from Connecticut, New England, and the tri-state region will be featured the third annual Summer Arts Festival on the Essex Connecticut Town Green, presented by the Arts Center Killingworth and Spectrum Gallery in Centerbrook.

The Festival is Saturday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, June 10 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on the Essex Town Green, 12 Main Street, Essex.

In addition to the outdoor arts festival, this annual event includes a concurrent six-week group show through Sunday, July 8 at Spectrum Gallery and Store, 61 Main Street, Centerbrook with a juried selection of work by participating festival artists. The exhibit includes a mixture of painting—both representational and abstract—as well as mixed media, photography, and fine crafts.

The Essex Town Green will be the place to explore a variety of representational and abstract works by painters using oil, acrylic, watercolor, and mixed-media collage, as well as work by many fine photographers, potters and ceramicists, glass and fabric artisans, and jewelry designers using sterling and silver, copper, and semi-precious stones. There also will be demonstrations throughout the weekend by painter Pam Carlson and wood burning artist John Houle.

New and returning artists presenting at the festival include painters Jayne Franzino Romero, who works with acrylics on canvas and reclaimed wooden boards; Lillian Forziat, an oil painter who embraces traditional realism and impressionism with a focus on still-life, land, and seascapes; Jeff Blazejovsky, who works in watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil and creates with a high level of detail focusing on antique and classic vehicles and portraits; and Jena Audette, who explores abstract mixed-media works she calls “inklings” made with alcohol inks, paper, and other materials. Other new and returning painters and mixed-media artists showing at the festival include Regina Thomas, Bob Burns, Pam Carlson, Tom Howard, Valerie Leri, Deborah Simmons, Lisa Conti, and Catherine Satsuk.

Also on the green is Kathleen Zimmerman, an award-winning printmaker and sculptor; Jean-Luc Godard, an emerging artist who primarily works with sculptural lighting favoring wood and metal in his creations; and John Houle, who presents his woodburnings or pyrography, a form of scrimshaw (or engravings) done on wood with heat and enhanced with acrylic wash.

Photographers include many known favorites and some new to the festival such as Larry Reitz, Harry Rosenbluth, Judith Secco, Normand Charlette, Paul Ramsey, Robert Thomas, Sergio Villaschi, and photographer and mixed-media artist Tanya McIntyre.

Many fine artisans are also exhibiting and selling their pieces.

For more information, visit spectrumartgallery.org or call 860-767-0742. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday, noon to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.