Awards, opening party mark group’s 95th year

KENT — Since its founding in 1923 by nine well-established artists, the Kent Art Association has hosted at least one show every year for its members. The Association hosts two shows annually, in spring and fall, and on March 24 opened its 95th consecutive Members Show with a reception and the presentation of five Awards of Excellence at the Gallery at 21 S. Main St., according to a news release from KAA.

The Awards of Excellence were presented by KAA president and show chairwoman Connie Horton. Recipients include Gino Zenobia, of New Milford, for his mixed-media sculpture, “Samsara”; Chandra Rogers, also of New Milford, for her oil titled “Slop”; Karin Smith, of Kent, for her photograph, “Floral Romance”; Werner Kappes, of New Preston, for his oil, “Underwater Magic”; and Zufar Bikbov, of Oakville, for his oil, “Hidden in the Shade.”

The first members show took place in the fall of 1923, after eight artists and one sculptor formed the Kent Art Association. Robert Nisbet, KAA co-founder with George Laurence Nelson, was the first artist to move permanently to Kent. Nisbet had been a member of the Old Lyme Artists Colony (KAA is the second-oldest art association in the state, second to Old Lyme) and had been studying with the well-known and respected artist, Willard Metcalf, when he created a scandal by running off with Metcalf ’s wife, Marguerite. They were married in 1910 and moved to Kent soon after, as they found themselves shut out of New York society. They lived in Kent for over 50 years.

More artists began to settle in Kent or in the case of Rex Brasher, in what he was told was Kent only to find himself a few hundred yards over the disputed border with New York. Francis Luis Mora settled in the Gaylordsville section of New Milford. Sculptor Willard Paddock arrived soon after the Nisbets. George Laurence Nelson and Spencer Nichols had houses and studios in north Kent; their road would later be named, Studio Hill. Eliot Clark and Frederick Waugh, joined by his son-in-law Floyd Clymer, arrived soon after. Nelson’s father, Carl Hirschberg, who died shortly before the association was founded, was the cofounder of the Art Students League in New York, where both Mora and Nesbit had been instructors. Mora was also a close friend of William Merritt Chase and taught at his art school. Nisbet, Mora and Waugh were all members of the National Academy, and Waugh has paintings that hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rex Brasher was to gain notoriety as the only artist to paint all of the birds and trees of North America, and his collection of 875 watercolor paintings is owned by the state of Connecticut and is in conservation storage at the University of Connecticut.