Dozens of family members, friends, and colleagues attended the recent opening reception of Bill Glass’s new exhibition, “The World Through the Eyes of an Artist.”

The exhibition within Newtown Municipal Center, hosted by Newtown Cultural Arts Commission (NCAC), was originally scheduled to be on view until July 31. However, after receiving a request from NCAC Chair Laura Lerman, Glass agreed to extend the show until Friday, August 29.

The show consists of 38 different pieces of artwork, paintings highlighting nature and photographs highlighting places in Newtown and beyond.

People poured into the municipal center for the July 13 celebration, visiting with and congratulating the Newtown resident for the impressive presentation. Attendees talked among themselves as they snacked on cheese, crackers, and sourdough bread and moved through the area, browsing piece after piece of artwork hung up along the walls.

Nearly everyone greeted Glass with a big hug. Some arrived with bouquets of flowers in honor of the special occasion.

Among those in attendance was fellow Newtown resident Joan Alexander, who called Glass and his work “quintessential Newtown.”

“He’s all over the place helping people in town,” Alexander said. “He’s enthusiastic, warm, and talented. I’m just so excited for him and his show.”

Lerman, who curates and manages Newtown Municipal Center Art Gallery with the NCAC, said it was the largest opening reception the commission has seen to date. She said she expected around a maximum of 30 guests.

Instead, Glass was told that approximately 200 guests attended the reception. One was a professor of his from years ago. Another was in his rock and roll band in high school.

For Glass, seeing so many people there came as a bit of a shock.

“I was really taken aback,” he said. “Clearly everyone was having a good time, and that was wonderful.”

Selecting the 38 pieces in the show was not difficult for the artist. With the exception of two large diamond paintings, he said all of the paintings were created between January and June of this year.

According to Glass, something that surprised many of the guests was that every new painting had at least two paintings under it, with one even having three beneath it. Glass said he would finish a piece on a given day, wake up the following morning, and feel it “didn’t say what he wanted it to say.”

“So I would paint over it with white gesso and start all over,” he explained.

The photographs were chosen on two conditions: they were either places in Newtown that Glass loves, such as Boggs Hill and the walking trails along Fairfield Hills, or they were places that told a story.

Glass said he wanted his photographs of places such as Little Italy in New York City and Harkness Memorial Gardens on the ocean in Waterford, to tell a story as much as they make someone feel like they are there.

While all but two of the paintings are new, the photographs selected for "The World Through the Eves of an Artist" were taken over the course of a number of years.

One of his biggest takeaways from his many years of painting and photography is that no one can “make” the creative process happen. Glass said the more someone tries to force it, the more ephemeral and elusive it becomes.

“Creativity comes in fits and spurts on its own terms. When you just let go it happens. I work on my craft every single day but the creative part happens according to its own vibe,” he said.

Glass is also heavily inspired by nature, which can be seen in his paintings featuring waves peeking through heavy fog or crashing against rugged mountains. Other pieces in the show, such as “Autumn on Warner Pond,” feature the stillness of nature set against the impending yellow and orange sunset.

If there is anything he hopes people take away from the exhibition at Newtown Municipal Center, Glass said he hopes it serves as a moment of peace and “reminder of the beauty that surrounds us.”

“Newtown is the quintessential beautiful New England town, and I try to capture that beauty as often as I can and share it,” said Glass, who has been a photographer for The Newtown Bee for two years. His landscape photographs are regularly offered as "Looking Glass" features, and his images from countless public events regularly fill the newspaper's pages and website.

Speaking with The Newtown Bee after the July 13 reception, Glass shared that someone told him that afternoon was her third time visiting the exhibit. She told him she sits on the wooden bench within the large gallery and lets the paintings take her to a place of inner peace.

“That’s about the best compliment I can imagine regarding my work,” Glass said.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.