For the sixteenth year, the Granby Land Trust (GLT) and the Granby Artists Association (GAA) came together to host a juried art show—Celebrating New England’s Natural Beauty.
This year, the show’s art featured scenes from Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Works depicting local properties like Enders State Forest, the McLean Game Refuge, Holcomb Farm, Lost Acres Vineyard, the GLT Dismal Brook Wildlife Preserve, the GLT Mary Edwards Mountain Property, the GLT Godard Preserve and the GLT Dewey-Granby Oak, reminded us how very lucky we are to live in a town with so much preserved property.
“The art show remains one of the highlights on the Land Trust’s annual calendar of events,” said GLT President Rick Orluk. “When you visit the show, it forces you to slow down and take a moment to appreciate the different perspectives brought by the incredibly talented artists who enter the show and reminds us of the natural beauty around us that we sometimes race by in our everyday lives. The Land Trust finds the show to be inspirational to its work and loves the energy and buzz it creates in our community.”
Thanks to the incredible generosity of the GLT’s friends, the show offers $5,000 in award money. This year, more than 150 pieces of original artwork were submitted; just 78 were selected to be in the show. Amy Kurtz-Lansing, curator at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, had the difficult task of jurying this year’s show.
The winner of the 2023 show’s top prize, the Don and Marty Wilmot Award, was Jim Laurino for his oil painting, Hydrangea–Wilcox Side Yard, a painting of the historic Wilcox House in West Granby. Laura Eden was awarded the Granby Land Trust Award for her egg tempera painting titled Holcomb’s Bounty, which depicts the farm fields at the neighboring Holcomb Farm. As a juried show, only the independent juror (in this case, Lansing) decides which pieces are accepted or which pieces receive awards. It was exciting to see the two top awards go to works that were started at the GLT’s BIG PAINT plein air event held at Holcomb Farm in October.
Twelve additional prizes were awarded as follows: Rita Law McConaughy won the Sandy and Dave Schupp Award for High Field. Heather Sawtelle won the Austin McNey Memorial Award given by Karen, Scott and Patrick McNey for The Gardener. Roger Duffy won the Granby Artists Association Award for Psalm 46:4. Thomas Adkins won the Mildred Dewey Award, given by Jenny and Dave Emery, for Sailing into Monhegan. The Ray Betts Award, given by Carol and Greg Reid, went to Steve Gerling for Brookies and Hendricksons. Bill Simpson won the Helen and Al Wilke Award for Last Good Country No. 2. Scott Rhoades won the Tudor and Laura Holcomb Award, given by Nannie and Put Brown, for Maine Attraction. Karen Suponski won the Olof Stevenson Award, given by Jamie Gamble, for Creamer Pond. Catherine Elliott won the Matthew K. Orluk Award, given by Trish Percival and Rick Orluk, for May at McLean. The William Stewart Award, given by Dave and Judy Russell, went to Suzanne DiSessa for Audubon Road Barn. Rick Daskam won the Carol and Dick Caley Award for Rocks, Surf and Fog. As of this writing, the People’s Choice Award, given by Lost Acres Vineyard (and decided based on votes submitted by visitors to the Vineyard throughout the course of the show) had not yet been determined.
The Land Trust is grateful to Mark and Barb Wetzel, and to Ted Cormier of ALIRT Insurance Research, LLC, for their ongoing, loyal support of the show. In addition, the Land Trust thanks the many volunteers who helped organize the show and run its Opening Night; the Granby Artists Association for its ongoing support of the show; all of the GLT supporters who funded the awards (see the award listing for a full list); Tony Capelli for the donation of his stunning floral arrangements; and Michelle Niedermeyer and Kevin Riggott of Lost Acres Vineyard for hosting the show, for funding the People’s Choice Award, and for welcoming us into their beautiful space.
