A New Exhibition At Lexington Gardens

By Shannon Hicks

Each fall at Lexington Gardens, a nursery and boutique on Church Hill Road in Newtown, one of the largest rooms of the building is devoted to Christmas trees laden with themed ornaments. Easily a dozen trees are covered from tip to trunk with ornaments, ribbon, and lights. Candles are presented along two shelves toward the back of the room, and other holiday specialty items spill into corners, displays, book shelves, and even into part of the nursery’s boutique.

The area, even for customers who just browse at Lexington Gardens during the holiday season, is an artistic exhibition that is looked forward to every year. It goes up before Thanksgiving and remains on view — as customers purchase the baubles and bric-a-brac on view — until just past New Year’s. Once the trees and their decorations are finally removed, in goes another more traditional show of art.

“Color in January,” an art show and sale presented by members of the Society of Creative Arts of Newtown, is a nine-day affair at which regional artists who are members of the artists’ collective are invited to present original works of art.

The public is invited to enjoy the show as its own entity, or to meander through the display while on a regular visit to the Newtown nursery.

This year’s “Color in January” opened on Saturday, January 13, with a demonstration presented at 12:30 and a public reception from 2 to 4 pm. Sandra Spry, a watercolor artist from Naugatuck who has been a member of SCAN for three years, says the biggest challenge for a show chairman — which she is for the current “Color in January” — is to call up any organizational skills available.

“It was a challenge putting the show together,” Mrs Spry said this week, citing the paperwork, countless phone calls with answers for members who had questions or concerns, setting up the schedule for sitters at the show, and other tasks each show chairman handles. “But it’s been a rewarding and enjoyable experience.”

Setup for the show started on January 11 and during four hours over 75 member artists showed up to enter paintings into “Color in January.” Each artist was allowed up to three paintings, and most took advantage of that guideline. It took nearly three hours to hang the show the following morning.

“We’re really excited about this show,” Mrs Spry continued. “It’s beautiful to see such a range of paintings — oils, watercolors, pastels, mixed media — and so many different styles. I’m proud to have chaired this show this year.”

“Color in January” traditionally presents four artist demonstrations during the course of the show, one on each Saturday and Sunday of the event. Barbara Goodspeed opened this year’s show with an oil demonstration on January 13, which drew a crowd of no less than three dozen people.

(Sadly, longtime SCAN member Jim Minnicks passed away last week and his memorial service was Saturday afternoon. Certainly the small number of SCAN members and other friends of the artists’ group seen on Saturday at Lexington Gardens was accounted for in part by the fact that many of Mr Minnicks’ fellow artists were attending the late artist’s service.)

Sunday afternoon the demonstrations continued with a program by Dick Ochs. The program on creating a snow scene with watercolors drew 67 people, according to Mrs Spry. Not only were the demonstrations a success, but the show is also off to a good start: SCAN reported sales of nearly 20 paintings by the end of the weekend.

This weekend Janice Baragwanath will present a watercolor program on Saturday and Kita Macon will offer a look at her technique of working with pastels for portraits on Sunday. Demonstrations, along with show admission, are free of charge; both programs will begin at 12:30.

Ms Goodspeed, Ms Macon and Mr Ochs are among SCAN artists who will be offering public workshops in various media later this month and into March. The art group is sponsoring one-day workshops on painting with acrylics, oils, pastels, and watercolors, and each workshop is $45 per person. For questions or schedule details contact SCAN workshop chairman Nancy Warwick at 746-3631.

SCAN’s “Color in January” continues daily through January 21 at Lexington Gardens, 32 Church Hill Road in Newtown. Admission is free. All of the work — over 150 pieces — is by members of SCAN.