Redding artists will open studios Sunday

The Artists of Redding Studio Tour is a benefit for the Redding League of Women Voters and will showcase the work of Kathy Anderson, Babette Bloch, Hansi Engel, James Grashow, Marc Mellon, Erin Nazzaro and Victoria Wyndham.

Linda Eike, LWV president, described the tour as “a unique opportunity to visit the studios of some of the finest artists in Redding for a nominal fee.

“To be able to see seven artists with such different perspectives — and to be able to discuss their work with them — is a rare opportunity. The League of Women Voters is extremely grateful to all of them for their generous participation. Not one paused for a moment before saying yes to our request that they open up their studios to us and give an afternoon of their time.”

Kathy Anderson, who has been painting for most of her adult life, is known for her garden landscapes and nature scenes. She has won many awards for her work including the President’s Award at the National Arts Club Member Show in 2011 and first prize in the Salmagundi Club’s Member’s Show. She will exhibit in the American Masters Invitational at the Salmagundi Club in spring, 2012. She is an exhibiting artist member of the National Arts Club and in the club’s permanent collection; a signature member of the Connecticut Watercolor Society; a charter member of Putney Painters with Richard Schmid, Putney, Vt.; a member of Oil Painters of America; and an artist member of the Salmagundi Club. She is represented by Susan Powell Fine Art of Madison; Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Greenhouse Gallery, San Antonio, Texas; and Chrysalis Gallery, Southampton, N.Y.

Babette Bloch and her husband and fellow sculptor Marc Mellon will open their studios to visitors on Sunday, showcasing their different approaches to three-dimensional media. Ms. Bloch is a pioneer in laser-cut stainless steel sculpture and divides her time between site-specific, one-of-a-kind commissions and limited edition works exhibited in fine art galleries. She has been sculpting since 1980 and began working in stainless steel in 1993. She recently created four nine-foot tall figures for the Brookgreen Gardens Lowcountry Trail in Murrells Inlet, S.C.

Ms. Bloch is an active member of the National Arts Club and has received its President’s Medal. She is the volunteer president of The Artists’ Fellowship, Inc., founded in 1859 to assist professional artists in time of emergency.

Mr. Mellon is considered one of America’s premier figurative sculptors in bronze and has done commissioned bronze busts of former President George H.W. Bush, Pope John Paul II, President Lee Teng-Hui of Taiwan, Winston Church, and Albert Einstein. He has created busts from life sittings of many prominent people, most recently, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel.

Mr. Mellon is also known for his sports bronzes and dance bronzes. His portrait relief of Barack Obama was created for the obverse of the 2009 Official Presidential Inaugural Medal. He is active in the National Arts Club, the Artists’ Fellowship, Inc., Portrait Society of America, and other arts organizations. In 2007, he was elected to the Century Association in Manhattan where he exhibits annually; in 2010, he was Coker Master Sculptor at Brookgreen Gardens and was also elected a Fellow in the National Sculpture Society.

Hansi (Johanna J.L.) Engel, a watercolorist, enjoys painting flowers and working en plein air as well as doing portraits. She studied at Silvermine School of Art and has participated in many regional shows at the Visual Art Center in Punta Gorda, Fla. Her work has won prizes at the Waveny Art Center, Greenwich YWCA, and at the Pink Tent Festival in Stamford. In 2006, her work “Mirrored Image” hung in the Hudson Valley Art Association Show in New York City.  Her works are hanging on three continents and in many homes on the East and West Coasts.

James Grashow has been addressing “themes of man, nature and mortality” in his art since the 1960s. A graduate of the Pratt Institute, he received a Fulbright Travel Grant for painting and graphics to Florence, Italy, and later returned to Pratt for his master’s degree. He has created large environmental installations, such as “A City” (1984), as well as more delicate floral displays, where houses and buildings replace flowers and buds. His work has been featured at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, where he’s also frequently worked with young people. He’s a well known woodcut artist, widely published in periodicals including The New York Times. He had his first sculpture show at the Allan Stone Gallery in 1966 and still continues that relationship.

Erin Nazzaro, who works in oil, acrylic and watercolor, is know for her boldly colored paintings, inspired by her travels in Mexico, South America and Europe.  She says she’s “most inspired by “the animals, landscapes and passion of the peoples in these countries, their love of family, their connection with the land, their fervent beliefs.” Ms. Nazzaro maintained a studio in Mexico for many years and found inspiration in the colors and the folk art there.

Victoria Wyndham is known for her three decades in daytime television, first on The Guiding Light and then on Another World. In the latter, her character, Rachel Cory, became a sculptor at Ms. Wyndham’s suggestion, and she did all the artwork for her character. A bronze torso she created for the show was donated by NBC to the Smithsonian Institution. Having performed on stage before and during her television career, Ms. Wyndham also did video art, dance concerts and rock videos during the 1980s and later toured with acting partner and friend Charles Keating in a series of recitals and readings.

Since moving to Redding and establishing her studio in 2004, she has exhibited in many group shows and had her first one-woman show since 1977 at Artifact Gallery in Wilton last year. Her work was also included in Art of the Northeast at Silvermine in 2010.

All proceeds from the Artists of Redding Studio Tour will benefit the Redding League of Women Voters. Ms. Eike explains that the organization fills “a unique niche in town, hosting forums on issues such as affordable housing and town planning, providing a bus (when money allows) for Joel Barlow High School students to attend the Symposium on International Relations at Quinnipiac College, arranging public meetings with our local and state representatives and staging candidates’ debates during contested elections.”