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Gallery on the Green reopened Friday, Jan. 7, with “Who I Am,” a members show, in the main gallery, Canton artist Jim Koplar’s solo show in the upstairs gallery and works by Grace and Naomi Epstein in the spotlight gallery.
An opening reception is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight, Jan. 8. The public is welcome. All three shows will run through Feb. 6.
Gallery visitors will be greeted by the three images seen in the photo above: Joe Hoke’s “Touch of Fall” (acrylic), Peggy Dembicer’s “C’est Moi” (oil paint) and Grace Epstein’s “Summer’s Work” (photograph).
Gallery on the Green, located at Route 44 and Dowd Avenue in Canton, is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.
To check out larger versions of the images below, all of which are currently at Gallery on the Green, click on any of the three and use the arrow left or arrow right button at the bottom of the larger image that pops up. To return to this page, click on the full image you are viewing.
– dotCANTON
 "Collinsville Bridge -- 1905" / Art Chouinard Seventeen paintings by Avon artist Art Chouinard are on display at Canton Town Hall through the months of January and February. All 17 paintings are on the first floor. A listing of titles with the prices of these originals is available at town hall.
Chouinard is a familiar figure at the Canton Public Library, where he spends a day each month painting. His next scheduled appearance at the library is Thursday, Jan. 20.
For more about Chouinard, see this earlier post on dotCANTON.com.
To check out some of Art Chouinard’s paintings currently on display at town hall, click on any of the nine images in the gallery below and use the arrow left or arrow right button at the bottom of the larger image that pops up. To return to this page, click on the full image you are viewing.
– dotCANTON
 "Retirement" / Jim Koplar By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
Collinsville artist Jim Koplar was in Falls Village about three years ago when he spotted “a row” of rusted old vehicles in the snow. He snapped a few pictures and eventually created an image of what he had seen, calling his work “Retirement.” Koplar might not have known it at the time, but his “Rust In Peace Series” had just been born.
 Jim Koplar in his studio. By now, that series has expanded to the point where Koplar is considering a calendar next year dedicated to those works.
“To me, they have a personality,” Koplar says about the useless old vehicles, which can be cars, trucks or tractors. “When I see them in a field, rusting, I think about their past, maybe what they had been used for. I kind of feel sad for them. They look kind of sad and lonely.”
Several images from the Rust In Peace Series will be on display in the upstairs gallery when Gallery on the Green kicks off its 2011 program on Friday, Jan. 7. “Who I Am,” a members show, will open downstairs that day, and artist Grace Epstein will be featured in the Spotlight Gallery on the second floor.
 "From The Barn" / Jim Koplar An opening reception is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 8. The public is welcome. All three shows will run through Feb. 6.
Koplar, who grew up in Torrington but has lived in Collinsville since 1992, will have 32 pieces on display upstairs, all of which, he says, were created “from 2008 forward.” Though he’s technically not a part of the “Who I Am” show, Koplar decided to follow a similar theme by showing a “cross-section of things I do that are of interest to me,” specifically: portraits, still lifes, local scenes and works from Rust In Peace.
Mostly self-taught — though he earned an arts degree from Tunxis Community College in 2004 — Koplar describes himself as a “pastelist.”
“It’s the medium I’ve been using lately, and I enjoy it,” Koplar says. “You can work quickly with it.”
Koplar, who became Burlington’s building official in July of 2009 after serving as an assistant building official in Avon for 10 years, says he tries to get into his home studio three or four times a week. He also runs an “Art Jam” at Gallery 101 Main in Collinsville every Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The “drop-in class,” as Koplar calls it, costs $10. Drawing boards, drawing easels and materials are available, and Koplar says he’ll offer his assistance if asked.
“A lot of people are regulars,” he says of the jams. “It’s a very nonjudgmental (environment) for newcomers. Koplar says participants range from high school age to adult.
Koplar also has copies of the 2011 “Greetings From Collinsville, Connecticut” wall calendar that features reproductions of 12 of his works. Call 860-508-4630 for more information about the calendars.
Gallery on the Green, located at Route 44 and Dowd Avenue in Canton, is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.
To check out larger versions of the images below, click on any of the three and use the arrow left or arrow right button at the bottom of the larger image that pops up. To return to this page, click on the full image you are viewing.
 "Bass Harbor Maine Light By Moonlight" / Art Chouinard  Paintings by Art Chouinard will be on display at Canton Town Hall in January and February. Photo: dotCANTON By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
The more you look at his work and the more you listen to his story the more you find yourself almost disbelieving what the man is saying.
Self-taught? Never tried painting until a little more than a decade ago … when he was well into his 60s?
Art Chouinard of Avon grins a lot as his visitor marvels over how far and how fast he has come, almost like, maybe, he doesn’t quite believe it himself.
 "HMS Rose Tall Ship" / Art Chouinard Make no mistake, Chouinard — pronounced Shen-ard — has a highly skilled right hand. His talent for general graphics and lettering paid the bills for 40 years, and you get the feeling he’d still be creating banners, promotional posters, artwork and trade show presentations for area insurance companies had the computer not come along. But it did, and it took work away from him and many others in that trade.
“A lot of artists that were let go went to computer school,” says Chouinard, who has been invited to display his extraordinarily detailed paintings at Canton Town Hall through the months of January and February. “If I had been a lot younger, I probably would have gone, (too).”
 "Weekapaugh, R.I., By Moonlight" / Art Chouinar Instead, Chouinard started looking for something else to do. “Retirement is a foreign word to me,” he says. “I wanted to convert over to a different scene entirely.”
He started painting general landscapes and scenes from around the Farmington Valley, including, quite naturally, the Collins Co. ax factory in Collinsville. His efforts were impressive to say the least, but Chouinard didn’t find a path he could follow with passion until a friend in Watch Hill, R.I., introduced him to the work of maritime artist John Stobart. The British-born Stobart’s s realistic style paintings got Chouinard’s attention.
 "Niantic Yacht Club Misty Morning" / Art Chouinard “Oh, boy, did they ever,” he says.
“I loved his work and said that’s where I’d like to be someday. I said, here’s a goal.”
Just as he had never planned to paint, Chouinard wasn’t thinking about being a commercial graphic artist when he was growing up in Hartford’s South End and attending St. Augustine Grammar School and Bulkeley High School. He envisioned himself playing his trombone for a living and even enlisted in the Air Force to be a member of a field band.
It didn’t take long for some realities to hit home.
“I wanted to be a musician badly,” he says. “But when I lived with other musicians in the Air Force, I could see where I was lacking.”
He took a “mail order” course in architectural drafting while in the service and produced publicity posters for some Air Force buddies who were booking stateside talent to entertain the troops in Puerto Rico, where Chouinard was stationed for three years. Continue reading Town Hall Invites Chouinard
“Music for a Joyous Season: A Concert of Baroque Chamber Music,” the second event in the 2010-11 Shepherd Music Series at the Collinsville Congregational Church, 7 South St., is set for Sunday, Dec. 19, at 4 p.m.
The concert, sponsored by the Maxwell Shepherd Memorial Arts Fund, is free, and reservations are not required.
The Chamber Orchestra will perform works by Arcangelo Corelli, Johann Pfeiffer, Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi.
The Chamber Orchestra was formed by violinist Katie Hyun in New Haven in 2008, according to Raymond Petke, vice president of the Shepherd fund’s board of directors.
“They gave their first concert that year in December at Dwight Chapel on the Yale University campus,” Petke said in an e-mail to dotCANTON.
Petke described the musicians as “young, highly trained, and professional.”
“As far as I know, they do only two concerts each year around the winter holiday season, one at Yale (and the other) in Collinsville,” Petke said.
He said there are 12 members in the orchestra this year, “all string players except for the harpsichord.”
Next up in the Shepherd Music Series is a recital by Israeli flutist Itay Lantner on Sunday, March 20, 2011, at 4 p.m. An anticipated event, “Bravo Beethoven!,” is on hold due to scheduling difficulties, according to Petke.
Maxwell Shepherd was a longtime resident of Collinsville. The Shepherd fund was created “to promote the arts, provide cultural enrichment to the communities in which Max lived and worked, and offer support and encouragement to artistic creators and performers,” according to the memorial fund’s September 2010 newsletter.
More information about the Maxwell Shepherd Memorial Arts Fund can be obtained by writing to MSMAF Inc., Attn: A. Walter Kendra, 16 South St., Collinsville, CT 06019, or by calling 860-693-2762.
– dotCANTON
 "Moca Bird" / Joy Floyd, MIXUS  "Larry's Pond In Winter" / Frances Hoffnagle While the annual Holiday Show is going on downstairs at Gallery on the Green, the work of several artists is on display upstairs.
Frances Hoffnagle is in the Spotlight Gallery, and individuals from the group MIXUS are showing in the larger, adjacent space.
The Holiday Show and the shows upstairs will run through Dec. 19. An opening reception at Gallery on the Green is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 13, from 6 to 9 p.m. The public is invited.
Gallery on the Green, located at Route 44 and Dowd Avenue in Canton, is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.
To check out some of the other art on display upstairs at Gallery on the Green, click on any of the 12 images in the gallery below and use the arrow left or arrow right button at the bottom of the larger image that pops up. To return to this page, click on the full image you are viewing.
– dotCANTON
The Holiday Show, an annual event presented by the Canton Artists’ Guild, opens at 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 12, at Gallery on the Green. Numerous items created by guild members and invited guests are on display and available for purchase in the downstairs gallery, including what’s in the photo above and in the gallery of photos below.
The Holiday Show runs from Nov. 12 through Dec. 19. Gallery on the Green, located at Route 44 and Dowd Avenue in Canton, is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.
Click here for a previous post on The Holiday Show.
To check out some of the other items for sale at the Gallery on the Green’s annual Holiday Show, click on any of the 12 images in the gallery below and use the arrow left or arrow right button at the bottom of the larger image that pops up. To return to this page, click on the full image you are viewing.
– Photos: dotCANTON
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