The Stockbridge Library annual Valentine’s Day Party will be from 10am to 2pm on February 14th
The Craven Contemporary, 4 Fulling Lane, Kent, Ct., announces “When I Heard at the Close of Day” a solo show by Bruce Brodie. The gallery Is open on Saturdays and Sundays. Brodie will be there on February 14th and 15th
From artist and Stockbridge resident Bruce Brodie
We moved to Stockbridge, into a wonderful old rambling house on the hill above town, in 2022.
Retiring after a career in business, I jumped, feet first, into picking up the paintbrushes I had left fallow recently. I found a young(er) community of artists and studio space at The Muse in Monument Mills and rented a studio, overlooking the Housatonic. It reminded me of New York lofts of early days in Soho where I lived after graduating from Yale as a painter 50 years ago!
Over the last few years, working in this new space, I explored new themes (for me), and want to introduce the result of my work. I have an upcoming one-man show at Craven Contemporary gallery in Kent, which opens this weekend and will run through March 15.
The show, consisting of 18 paintings, all completed in 2025 is called, ‘When I heard at the close of the day.’ The titles of the paintings in the show all borrow from the poetry of Walt Whitman to help put words to the painting’s themes invoking the seasons, sunlight, weather, heaven and earth, love, ardor and longing.
My work, in 2025, started in anticipation of changing times and took shape amidst the persistent drumbeat aimed at consolidating power and curtailing freedoms. My response, increasingly, was to look to the skies to express his feelings and find hope.
Norman Rockwell Museum presents
Readings at Rockwell: Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton, February 4th, 6pm
A History of Illustration – “The Abyss” until May 31, 2026
This exhibition aims to demonstrate the vast complexity of illustration, while simultaneously illustrating something vastly complex: the ocean. From the 19th century to the present, artists have engaged with the concept (as well as the reality) of the ocean for many purposes, from wartime propaganda and political statements to compelling book illustrations and lighthearted cartoons. Some of the works included in The Abyss depict fictional underwater worlds by Tom Lovell and Stanley Meltzoff while others, including the works of Julian Allen and Thomas Nast, responded to real world events. This collection illuminates the role of the sea as alternately beautiful, serene, threatening or mysterious, and it also offers multiple ways to engage with illustration, from books to posters, and quickly executed sketches to masterful paintings. Together, these works tell stories about the profundity of the ocean and the deep history of public and published images. It also presents a glimpse into a third kind of abyss, the Museum’s ever-expanding collection.
