Rippling cyan water slightly distorted a small fishing boat’s reflection as it drifted a few feet from shore.

“It’s one of her last paintings,” said local artist Linda Dohanos about her mother’s painting, one of a few dozen hanging in Newtown Municipal Art Gallery, within the town's municipal center, through August 30.

She and fellow artist and friend Julia Sikes-Provey curated “Our Mothers; Their Art,” showcasing works by their late mothers, which are being presented in the main hall of Newtown Municipal Center. Lining the walls are works by Florence Dohanos and Lucy Durand Sikes.

The women co-hosted a reception Saturday, August 24, inviting the public to the view the exhibit.

Ms Dohanos recalled driving with her mother, and stopping the car as they passed the boat scene.

“She liked the reflection on the water,” she said.

“It was interesting growing up with an artist. It taught me to see things,” Ms Dohanos said. “She said once in October, after it rained, ‘Look at the contrast.”

Her mother was looking at the colorful autumn leaves against the tree branches, darkened with rain, sh explained"

I look at things and I hear her voice,” she said.

Also proud of her mother’s art on display, Ms Provey said her mom enjoyed plein air landscapes, charcoals, and one portrait of Ms Provey standing with her daughter Eva, about 14 years ago.

That portrait, with a cloudy summer sky above, was placed next to another landscape painting of a field with a similar, cotton-clouded sky.

“I see mom’s paintings in the clouds all the time,” Ms Provey said.

As the women spoke, they agreed that both their mothers had loved nature, and preservation. On a reception table where guests could grab refreshments was a bouquet of black-eyed Susans, wild phlox, tall grasses and goldenrod, all now in bloom.

The exhibition is hosted by Newtown Cultural Arts Commission. It can be viewed weekdays between 8 am and 4:30 pm, and evenings when town boards and commissions are hosting meetings in the building at 3 Primrose Street.