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Local Artists Worth Owning

Connecticut is one of the best places to find local art. Artists are drawn to the shoreline by its beauty and by a strong support network that includes galleries, cooperatives, and art events. Talk to most local artists and you’ll find, alongside an eagerness to talk about their own life and work, ties to the greater community and a drive to create a welcoming climate for all artists.

The best way to support local artists is by hanging their work on your walls. By purchasing their paintings, you’re helping not just that individual but also the wider arts community.

Steve Plaziak

Steve Plaziak is best known for his watercolors, although he dabbles in oils and charcoal, too. Plaziak grew up in Rhode Island, where he studied art at summer courses offered by the Rhode Island School of Design. A past member of the Rhode Island Watercolor Society, he studied studio arts and political science at Fairfield University. Today, he works as a user experience designer and web developer.

“Painting gets me away from the computer,” said Plaziak, who moved to Guilford about 20 years ago. “It could be anything that inspires me: a boatyard, even just a field. Sometime I just pull over, take some photos, and sketch. Somebody said to me a while back, ‘Just paint what makes you happy.’”

Plaziak is the coordinator of this year’s Shoreline Arts Trail, a November weekend event that will showcase the work of 41 local artists at 34 different studios in Branford, Guilford, and Madison. The volunteer-run event features works in a variety of media, including paint, pottery, and fiber art.

“There’s just something for everyone on the trail—there’s a lot of different artists,” said Plaziak, who also plays guitar with his acoustic trio, the Mojo Boys. “You can really get a chance to find something new and maybe buy something. When I joined, I couldn’t believe how many talented people there are around who just do amazing work.”

The Shoreline ArtsTrail’s 15th annual Open Studios Weekend takes place on Saturday, Nov. 19, and Sunday, Nov. 20. For information, call 203-530-3330 or visit www.shorelineartstrail.com or steven.plaziak.com.

Leif Nilsson

A well-known impressionist painter and Lyme Academy graduate, Leif Nilsson has lived in Chester for more than 30 years. Nilsson enjoys painting a wide range of subjects on-site, and he reacts to changes in the environment as he paints.

“I go out sometimes with an idea in mind, sometimes without, and I respond to what I see,” said Nilsson, who often paints on his motorboat. “A certain wind will come by and change the color of the water, for instance. If I’m on the river, the boat can turn and the wind change, and it’s facing a direction it wasn’t facing, so the light is just perfect. I’ll respond to that.”

For Nilsson, each painting is a process that develops over time, sometimes over the course of weeks. “Each mark represents what I’m looking at,” he said, “and as time goes on, the marks can become more descriptive and more accurate,” he said. “That’s how they become kind of lumpy and textured over time. All of that is recorded in the paint sort of like dinosaur tracks.”

According to Nilsson, the process of continually amending his work to achieve perfection sometimes kills it, but it’s also the road to his finest achievements.

“I find that taking those risks is what makes me grow in some ways,” he said. “Instead of just being satisfied with mediocrity, I’m pushing for monumentality and some form of truth.”

The seasons, and the light particular to each, figure predominantly in Nilsson’s work. “We’re at the end of August,” he said, “and we’re heading into September light, and I can feel it already: the bronzing of the green, the light is sharper, the sun sets earlier, and it’s lower in the horizon, and the angle of the light is harsher and different than it was in early August. The micro-season from early August is over with, and now we’re heading into something else.”

Nilsson paints in oils. For the past dozen years he has preferred the clean strokes—and ease of cleanup—of a painting knife to brushes. He hosts the Concerts in the Garden series on select days at his studio, the Leif Nilsson Spring Street Studio and Gallery, 1 Spring Street, Chester.

For information, call 860-526-2077 or visit www.nilssonstudio.com.

Cindy Stevens

A resident of Clinton, Cindy Stevens opened up her gallery, the Cindy Stevens Fine Art Gallery, two years ago in downtown Clinton. Stevens creates oil paintings using a palette knife, mostly en plein air. She also hosts events ranging from parties where participants paint wine glasses to kids’ art classes that she runs with her daughter, Amy.

Stevens’s paint parties at Chip’s Pub, in Clinton, which she calls Positive Paint Night, benefit a different local charity each month. Recent events supported Project Purple, a national anti-substance-abuse initiative, and Partners in Community, a Clinton organization that promotes a healthy, drug-free lifestyle for local youth.

Once a year, Stevens visits Monhegan Island, in Maine, to paint the ocean, gardens, birds, and whatever else she finds. “It’s a very unspoiled place that I just love,” she said. “I can just paint and not think about anything else.”

Stevens, who used to run a frame shop, decided to become an artist at a later age. “It’s been the best thing,” she said. “Now I’m excited every day to come to work.”

For information, call 860-304-1666 or visit www.cindystevensfineart.com.

Yvonne Gordon

The director and owner of the Branford Art Center (BAC), Yvonne Gordon is primarily interested in the healing power of art. Originally from Norwich, she attended Norwich Free Academy and recently obtained a master’s in art therapy from Albertus Magnus College, in New Haven. She conducts art therapy with children and adults in the BAC studio space.

“It’s amazing because this whole space, this whole thing, is enabling me to share the power of art and how it heals,” she said. “That’s really what it’s about: the healing power of art.”

Gordon’s work is primarily non-representational mixed media. “It is monochromatic and has a very earthy kind of organic feel,” she said. “I use gold leaf a lot and feathers and some found materials. Sometimes I use clothing and string and fabric—very textural kind of work.”

For Gordon, mixed media provides an outlet for the unconscious. “A lot of the work I do now comes from a very soulful place,” she said, “and I find that it’s very authentic for me. I’ve had comments from people who look at my work, and they say they can be with the work instead of looking at it from a distance—they feel like they can be a part of it.”

At BAC, which opened just last year, Gordon rents wall space to 15 local artists for three months at a time. She prides herself not only on offering a fair commission but also on BAC’s community outreach and her own volunteer efforts. Like Stevens, she holds paint nights to raise funds for different nonprofit organizations. Gordon’s causes include the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the Branford Early Childhood Collaborative.

“We’re really community minded, and that’s the spirit of the gallery, too,” she said. “The artists who show here are emerging artists as well as those who’ve been here a long time, It’s about encouraging art of all level and all mediums. We have sculptural work here, we have paintings, we have feathers, we have jewelry. It’s really kind of a fun place.”

BAC will hosts its Shoreline Harvest Art Festival on Saturday, Oct. 8, on the Branford Green. It’s a great chance to meet about 40 local artists, as well as pick out gifts or artwork for your own home.

For information, call 203-208-4455 or visit www.branfordartscenter.com.