Flanders Nature Center Presenting A 50th Celebratory Art Exhibition

WOODBURY — Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust will kick off its 50th anniversary celebration with an exhibit of artwork that has been created by 12 artists whose work was featured on the invitations to its annual auctions. A featured painting by Chris Magadini for Flanders’ Fall 2012 auction will also be on display, as will paintings won during previous auctions and special events.

The exhibit will be at Woodbury Library Gallery from June 6 to June 30. The public is invited to a wine and cheese reception on Saturday, June 9, from 2:30 to 4:30 pm.

In addition to paintings from previous events, there will also be an additional painting by each featured artist available for purchase on view.

The featured artists include:

Tom Adkins, a masterful local painter who captures the atmospheric moods of New England scenes, whose work is much sought after in the area, and is in many corporate and private collections;

Melody Asbury, an award-winning local painter of animals and landscapes, member of International Society of Animal Artists, and a frequent exhibitor in the best-known local art institutions;

Robert Crawford, a well-known illustrator of artfully painted book covers, whose work has been featured on the cover of L.L. Bean’s Christmas catalog and who was commissioned by Bank of America to do a mural for their flag ship building in Chicago;

Vincent Giarrano, who has established himself as a fine figure and portraiture painter (following a career in illustration), who is represented by Susan Powell Fine Art, Grenning Gallery, and Waterhouse Gallery;

Julie Hickcox, an accomplished and award-wining watercolorist and acrylic painter, who is well established in local art organizations;

Robert Lenz, a prolific painter and print maker whose his work has been exhibited at Silvermine Guild Gallery, Paris-New-York-Kent Gallery and Morrison Gallery in Kent;

Chris Magadini, an avid plein air painter who he devotes himself full time to fine arts painting and conducting workshops, and is a member of the New England Plein Air Painters;

Marija McCarthy, a Yugoslav-born interpretive realist painter with a long history of teaching, who has exhibited her work on five continents;

Robert Andrew Parker, a seasoned, master artist whose work is collected by galleries and museums such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art;

Michael Remington Patterson, who works in watercolor, oil and graphics and exhibits widely throughout the United States;

Peter Seltzer, a renowned pastelist and oil painter, a member of The Allied Artists of America, and whose work is in the collections of the Butler Institute of American Art and New Britain Museum of American Art;

Anda Styler, who loves New England barns and depicting the joys of Connecticut seasons, is an avid plein air painter, and who has exhibited her work at galleries all along the eastern coast of the United States; and

Tom Yost, a celebrated landscape realist with an eye for the sublime in nature, whose his work is represented by Behnke Doherty Gallery.

The exhibit represents the best local creative work and has been assembled to celebrate fifty years of continual support of the arts by Flanders, which was founded by Natalie Van Vleck, an accomplished early modernist painter, gentlewoman farmer and lover of nature.

For more information on the exhibit, call Flanders Nature Center at 203-263-3711 extension 10 or visit www.flandersnaturecenter.org.