Art Purchase Award 2015
A reception was held Saturday, July 18, 2015, at the Middle Haddam Library to celebrate the presentation of "Shelter," a painting by East Hampton redident Thomas McLean. The public was invited and the evening featured refreshents, beverages, and music by Mike Asetta and Friends. "Shelter" depicts an old cemetery on Hog Hill. McLean describes to us, "Hog Hill cemetary is on the west side of Hog Hill Road. There have been no new burials there in nearly one hundred years. This place has been a source of many paintings for me, having just the right light in combination with large old trees on the west side letting dappled light caress the grand old brownstone markers and ground around them, creating an abundance of combinations and angles of light that for me seem never ending. This combined with the serenity of the place, create a poetic feel that seems almost perfect for me to paint by. This particular painting was done on a late November afternoon and is called shelter because the large old tree seemed to shelter the stones below it as a mother sheltering her young." The painting received the second annual Art Purchase Award, given by the town's Arts & Cutlure Commision. The goal of the commission is to recongize and encourage the many organizations or individual artists who contribute to the rich an diverse coultural activities in East Hampton.