Obsessive Realism |  Victor Leger 
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The inspiration for Victor Leger's painting is the thrill of thoroughly studying how to paint the light cascading across a hay field, or changing from moment to moment on the ripples of water in a lake. He loves the challenge of trying to recreate as accurately as possible the natural beauty of light in the environment. Victor says, “I think when people see a beautifully painted landscape they intuitively feel they are seeing in a way that is precious and new. They notice a radiance ordinarily overlooked.”

Victor has been painting since high school. He devotes a good portion of his time to plein-air oil painting entirely on site. He paints in a variety of sizes; lately he has painted on panel in order to get a higher definition in detail. The landscape he prefers to paint is the one right around his house and studio--Winchester Lake and the surrounding Litchfield County--the rural vistas of Connecticut. He has expanded his range to include the Connecticut and Maine coasts as well as the spacious Southwest and it has blessed him with winning awards done from these areas.

His desire to capture the contrast of aerial perspective of deep space and the high detail in the environment up close is what makes the work stand out, especially in the larger paintings. “I want the viewers to get the sense that they are right there in the environment, that the painting is like a window on a wall opening into nature.”

During his high school years in Hartford Victor was fortunate to attend art classes every day at the Wadsworth Atheneum, under the tutelage of artist Peter Waite. Following this experience, he entered his first year at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn with a full scholarship as a painting major. After five semesters he decided to try a different art school, and finished his Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts in painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984.

Currently Victor is a member of the International Guild of Realism. He has won various national and international awards and his works are in private and public collections across the US and Canada. He has displayed in ten American museums in a show titled, “The New Reality, Realism in the 21st Century”. He lives in the house that his wife, MaryPat and he designed and built in 1988. Together they have raised three wonderful children. He currently teaches art at the secondary level in the Torrington School District where he has been honored as Teacher of the Year in 2010 and in 2015 was selected as the Secondary Art Educator by the Connecticut Art Education Association.

Seeking Permanence - The Harlem Valley/Wingdale Project | Avery Danzinger
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​I remembered when I got my first camera at age 8, a Kodak Brownie.  I tried to  "sneak-a-peak" at my first roll of film before taking it to be developed, and was disappointed (and suspicious of being tricked!) when there was nothing there to see...  After the film was developed and came out black, I was interrogated by my father, who was a former chemist, and he tried to explain the concept of a "latent image".  I found it wondrously intriguing that there could be something essentially invisible, and yet recorded on the film, and it couldn't be seen unless acted upon.  At the time, it seemed as magic...

Since that time, I have loved visual paradox (making visible what's there but hidden somehow) and that theme seems to be one of the common threads throughout my work.

The Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project is no exception. I am drawn to the incredibly paradoxical beauty as expressed in the slow transformation from man-made order into the beauty of natural decay. These photographs were taken from the over 5,000 images I have taken over the last 3 years inside, (with permission and inside a HazMat suit) subtracting formalized and often abstract beauty from the chaos inside. 

Opened in 1924, the buildings at Harlem Valley have been abandoned since it's closing in 1994. The interiors of many of the buildings in the complex are toxic. The air is filled with mold (from long standing water), and asbestos and lead paint cover the floors. 

I am not an "End Times" photographer in that what interests me is the logos, rather than the pathos, that my photographs evoke. 

I love the stillness and quiet of the place. All I can hear is my breath through the respirator and HazMat suit I have to wear, much like a diver undersea.... In addition, the absolute lack of my seeing anything living (except an occasional fern or moss trying to eek out an existence) continues the metaphor of a diver visiting a bleached and dying coral reef, once thriving with life, but now lifeless and stark, man being the catalyst to nature's relentless predisposition to return to chaos.

Print Sale | Jenni Freidman, curator

A very special Print Show and Sale, curated by Jenni Freidman, showcasing the work of Connecticut based artists. This "cash and carry" (checks/credit cards also accepted) exhibit will provide an exciting opportunity to purchase a work of art and walk right out the door with it! Original prints make wonderful gifts and are an affordable way to begin your art collection.

Jenni Freidman is an assistant professor at the University of Hartford's Hartford Art School where she received her BFA and also teaches Foundation Drawing, Book Arts and Etching.  Jenni also attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she received her MFA. She makes prints, drawings and all kinds of work on and of paper in her backyard studio (and sometimes on her couch!). For most of her career, her work has depicted various forms found in nature. She continues to be inspired by this subject matter and more recently has found she is also drawn to pattern, color, sweets and treats.