The fifth annual Artists at Grove Street Plaza open-air art show will feature top local painters, photographers and ceramicists, with live chamber music and five food vendors as part of a Paris-style exhibit produced with Darien talent.
Contributed photo
Art on display and for sale
The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday Sept. 21 (the rain date is the following Saturday, Sept. 28.)
— This article is adapted from an announcement from Artists at Grove Street Plaza, with further information from the group’s website.
Artists at Grove Street Plaza will feature framed canvases, prints, photographs and ceramics. Some of the painters will work at their easels from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Young string students of Darien teacher Aikiko Silver will play classical chamber music.
Parked nearby will be a 1962 Airstream “Art Kart” — a mobile sewing and crafting school for kids, run by Erika Allen of Darien, who founded the Handwork School to teach textile art and other handwork.
Art by Nobu Miki
Artists, art, food, music and Darienites enjoying it all: The Artists at Grove Street Plaza celebration of local talent with a French twist takes place Sept. 21.
Alex Dolan artwork from the Artists at Grove Street Plaza website
The Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur and the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre (art by Alex Dolan).
“An outdoor setting like Grove Street Plaza is perfect for a pop-up art event where the whole day will be alive with shoppers and working artists, food and live chamber music — all surrounded by beautiful paintings, photography, prints and ceramics,”said Nobu Miki, the Darien modern folk artist who conceived and organized the day.
“For one autumn day, we hope to bring Paris to Darien,” she said.
Performing at a previous Artists at Grove Street Plaza event
Montmartre is the 400-foot hill in the northern section of Paris where bohemian painters like Renoir, Picasso and Modigliani lived and worked from 1872 to 1914 in the shadow of the white-domed Basilica of Sacré-Cœur.
Unlike modern day Montmartre, the Artists at Grove Street Plaza will be demonstrating their brushwork but won’t be knocking out 10-minute pastel portraits of passers-by.
“The participating artists are either for-real professionals or Sunday painters with solid local reputations,” Nobu said.
Exhibiting artists:
- Pamela Riley Abear, Sandra Aldrich, Julia Byrne,John Coots, Alex Dolan,Stephen Fritsch, Billi Kid, Susan Leggitt, Nobu Miki, Nanci Natale, Jon Puzzuoli, Jan Raymond, Eunice Roy, Chet Saur, Vicki Smith, Kathleen Weinstock, Ed Wilson.
Contributed photo
She’s looking it over, he’s looking over her shoulder.
Nobu recruited the artists with a suggestion to keep the price on most sale items to less than $500 “to make the artwork reasonable and accessible” to a strolling-by clientele who might buy on impulse.
“I think that is part of the outdoor, pop-up spontaneity of the event,” she said.
Returning to the Plaza after a four busy years away will be renowned Darien contemporary artist Billi Kid.
Five food vendors, mostly on a French theme:
- Gofer ice cream parlor on the Post Road will dispatch a refrigerated cart to the event.
- In the plaza itself are the NEAT coffee shop which will feature cafe au lait.
- The Melting Pot on the plaza will feature cheese fondue and chocolate fondue.
- Next door, the Darien Butcher Shop will feature BLT sliders.
- Flour Water Salt Bread will offer canelé de bourdeaux and chouquettes.
Use of the Grove Street Plaza and promotion for the day was made possible by the Glassmeyer family and David Genovese of Baywater Properties. Laurel Road Bank contributed to defray set-up expenses.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Darien library art gallery.
