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Essex Art Association’s Last Exhibit of the Season Running Now

The final show of the Essex Art Association’s (EAA) 2021 season, titled Brand New Day, is on full display at 10 North Main Street in Essex, from Wednesdays to Sundays, between 1 to 5 p.m. through Saturday, Aug. 28.

Pam Carlson, a contributing artist and president of the EAA board of directors, said the show’s title and theme were derived from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the organization’s activities.

“We lost a year due to COVID, so we tried to think of a positive way to represent our art,” said Carlson. “We had the largest intake for this show. And what are they? They’re everything from landscapes to modern abstracts, but they all speak to positivity.”

The subject matter “seems like the perfect day, like sunsets and sun rises,” said Carlson. “There were a few portraits that came out [with] very happy faces.

“There were some abstracts that incorporated some realism into them, like you’re walking down a path to a new place,” she continued.

The show features 119 entries, with four earning the “Best In Show” award. They include Walking the Fence Line by Len Swec, The Cove by Peggy Price, Calm by O.A. Rolston, and Lifting Mist by Phyllis Bevington.

Kimberly Edwards was awarded the Gantner Gallery Award, which is given to one artist during each EAA show. The Gantner Gallery Award is one of the organization’s highest tributes and allows the artist to present a body of work in a dedicated space during an exhibit.

The EAA also celebrates a milestone anniversary this year, with an open invitation for the public to attend a closing party scheduled for Aug. 28.

“This is our 75th year,” said Francine Curto, a member on the EAA board of directors. “It was started by a group of artists who were kind of like on the cutting edge of sculpture, modern art, different types of art, which were not accepted, say by the Old Lyme [Art] Association.”

Six local artists, E. Gould Chalker, Fred Freeman, Henry Kreis, Aldis Browne, James Pollock, and Bennett Buck, formed the seasonal art gallery in 1946, incorporating as a non-profit corporation in 1947.

Pollock, who was the brother of painter Jackson Pollock, was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. He is noted for several landscape paintings of local scenes including a piece titled The Essex Boat Works.

“And another founding member, Aldis Browne…is the artist that did the mural in the Griswold Inn, which is that giant mural behind the bar in the wine bar,” said Curto.

Although details of the event for the show’s closing on Aug. 28 are still being developed, Carlson said, “We’re going to make it a party to end our season. It’s a celebration for the artists and the fact that it is the 75th [anniversary].”