Art and Garden Tour 2026
Art and Garden Tour of Northeastern Connecticut
Saturday and Sunday, June 13 & 14, 10 am to 5 pm
Visit the private gardens of ten professional artists. See the art that their gardens inspire and the art of fellow guest artists.
The Art and Garden Tour, the annual self-guided tour through the towns of Ashford, Coventry, Mansfield and Willington, is an opportunity to see these very special gardens and experience the art on display. There are paintings – watercolors, oils, pastels and acrylics – plus indoor and outdoor sculpture, ceramics, glass, pyrography, jewelry, and metal, cement and wood work. The diverse gardens include informal and formal ponds, meandering woodland paths, garden gates and swings. Lavish plantings of Canterbury bells, foxgloves, nepeta, peonies, roses, herbs and poppies fill the beds. The fruit and vegetable gardens are as attractive to look at as they are productive.
Art work, much of it horticulturally inspired, will be available for purchase. Individuals, families and groups are welcome. Bring your camera or sketch book if you wish. Pose with a sculpture or beneath an arbor. The Art and Garden Tour is free.
For more information and a map, please visit:
Ashford
Lance Glass Studio, 162 Amidon Road, 860-933-7953
Garden: Lance Arnold’s flower and vegetable gardens offer peace and daily pleasure. There’s a red carpet – visitors are royalty! – in his garden, creating bright paths between his beds of vegetables, hollyhocks, dahlias and gladioli. You might even glimpse a fairy who has stepped out from one of Lance’s fairy houses.
Host Artist: Lance Arnold is a flotsamist sculptor, a stained-glass artist and a painter. His varied palette consists of found object material from the forest and the sea, stained glass, and paint. Making use of driftwood, animal bone, oxidized metal, dump debris and other retrieved detritus, he creates unique pieces: glass panels, table sculpture, wall sculpture and fairy houses.
Willow Tree Pottery, 24 Bebbington Road, 860-287-8056
Garden: This is an old-fashioned and rustic country garden. Foxgloves, peonies, nepeta, roses, and perennial geraniums color the borders. There are benches and chairs for sitting, arbors, a small stone terrace and an old hay rake. Josephine (the scarecrow) watches over the cutting garden. In the midst of it all, is the green corrugated kiln shed with an outdoor Szalay hummingbird print.
Host Artist: Suzy Staubach is inspired by the country pottery of ancient Korea, early America and 18th and 19th century England and France. She throws on a simple kick wheel and makes her own glazes from feldspars, clays and sand. Her elegant and quiet pots are meant to be used and enjoyed in the kitchen and at the table. She makes rolled rim mixing bowls, oval bakers, covered dishes, platters, tableware, lanterns and garden bells.
Guest Artist: Barbara Katz is a potter and sculptor working with clay. She creates simple forms based on and evocative of ancient rituals, artifacts and shamanic figures. When she discovers forms in clay she is conscious of her continuity with other artists as they have created objects for thousands of years using the same methods of shaping and processing this most elemental material available. Barbara makes vessels, bowls, wall art, and sculptures.
Guest Artists: Gretchen Geromin and Lauren Merlo work as a team, collaborating on cutting and serving boards and signs they make from local downed trees. After the trees are dried and milled, Lauren painstakingly crafts them into cheese, charcuterie, and bread boards. Gretchen then wood burns them with her original art: frogs, hummingbirds, sunflowers, roses, dragons, fish and more. Finally, Lauren gives them multiple coats of oil, making them satiny smooth and a pleasure to use.
Coventry
Barbara Timberman Watercolor Paintings 1194 Main Street, 959-929-2112
Garden: Visitors in June will delight in the abundance of lettuces planted in red-and-green patterns; garden peas and snap peas coming into harvest: chard, broccoli, beans and other later vegetables all laid out in pleasing blocks of greenery with the startling explosion of color from the central poppy walk. The herb garden supplies all the culinary flavors needed in the kitchen. Surrounding the entire edible garden are the delightful flowers of late spring: foxgloves and roses, Canterbury Bells and columbines
Host Artist: Barbara Timberman begins her watercolors with a close observation of plant structure and form, drawing on her background in botany. She is keenly interested in color relationships. In her work, Barbara often juxtaposes her plant subjects with complex and beautiful handmade objects. The result – exuberantly joyful paintings that call attention to the “tangled, intertwining beauty of the material world.” Her art graces many homes and has won a multitude of awards. Barbara also makes finely crafted blank journals.
Maple Brook Studio, 950 Main Street, 860-916-4232
Garden: A stone labyrinth, its path defined by moss, graces this hidden garden. Visitors are invited to walk the spiral path one at a time, and feel the calming effects. The labyrinth is sheltered by a red Japanese maple and fringed with woodland ferns. There’s also a sanctuary garden punctuated with sculptures, set in a rough meadow.
Host Artist: Aline Hoffman calls her art “Emotional Realism.” An artist since early childhood, over the years her work has included pen and ink, graphite, oils, acrylic, stone and metal sculpture, colored pencil, pastel, Chinese brush painting, pyrography, gourd sculpture, and her forest delights series. She explains that transformation is her “constant in life and in art.” Aline is currently engaged with a series of birch tree paintings on translucent textured papers.
Guest Artist: Gerard Ferrari is a ceramic artist inspired by natural forms, insects, mechanical objects, robotics, masks, and ancient cave paintings. He makes sculptural teapots, ceramic sculptures, vessels, and flower pots. Gerard uses trompe l’oeil surfaces on both his functional vessels and sculptural artworks.
Guest Artist: Jason Hilley works in forged steel, iron and copper. He began blacksmithing when he was 13 and has followed his passion for the work ever since. He says he enjoys “the process of moving metal with the help of fire and an assortment of hammers.” Jason creates high quality artistic fireplace tools, functional art, home and garden decor, and high end gardening tools. His work is found in homes, art shows and exhibits throughout the US and elsewhere.
Storrs/Mansfield
FentonRiver Studio, 287 Gurleyville Road, 860-429-3646
Garden: This flamboyant cottage garden surrounds an old button factory located next to the Fenton River in the quaint, historic village of Gurleyville. It is resplendent with pink, purple, red and white peonies, iris, and poppies. The garden features large garden sculptures including two ladies, a peacock and a tortoise bursting with annuals. There’s also a beautiful pond with 25 inch Koi.
Host Artist: Shauna Shane works in oil, pastel, watercolor and sculpture. Her goal is to share her love of the natural world with others through color, light and energy. Her studio is filled with impressionistic paintings. Her garden is filled with her sculptures. Shauna has won many awards for her work and has been a teacher and mentor for many Connecticut artists.
Flying Dragon Farm Studio, 533 Chaffeeville Road, 860-429-5222
Garden: An expansive, colorful garden surrounds the spacious barn studio. Guests can wander through a lush mix of fruit trees, berry bushes, flowers and vegetables. Amidst this profusion of horticultural delight, there is a lovely fish pond. Birds and bees abound. Located near the historic Gurleyville Gristmill.
Host Artist: Mary Noonan works in oil, water colors, encaustic , graphite and collage. Using multiple styles and techniques, Mary reflects her relationship to the people and natural world around her in each of the pieces she creates.
Guest Artist: Elizabeth Clark creates jewelry, ornaments, Dragon Eyes, fairy doors and wands. She uses metals such as silver and bronze, various woods and stones, beads, resin, and glass. Her work reflects her love of nature and gardens. Indeed, she even makes miniature gardens!
Guest Artist: Leanne Peters loves to draw and paint, exploring the mysteries of nature and emotion. A cast of whimsical and loveable animal characters inhabits her work. Leanne accepts commissions of animal portraits and people and is a much sought after graphic artist, designing puzzles, cards and more.
Scott Rhoades Studio, 422 Browns Road, 860-423-9779
Garden: Ellie and Scott Rhoades have created a picture-perfect garden around their house and the studio Scott built by hand after a 35 year career as an art teacher. The garden features stone arches, formal borders, terraces, a pool, fruit trees, a highly productive vegetable garden, an old-fashioned swing and a wealth of specimen shrubs, trees and perennials.
Host Artist: Scott Rhoades works in the style of traditional realism using acrylic paint mostly on gesso primed panel. The smooth surface enables him to work with fine details. His award-winning paintings are inspired by his travels around New England: the wilderness, weathered barns, historic buildings, people, and animals. His works are shown and collected throughout the US and internationally.
Michelle Allison Metal Art, 638 Browns Road, 860-933-5072
Garden: A series of interconnected yet distinct spaces in Michelle’s garden showcase welded metal sculpture, dry stacked stone cairns, and installations of reclaimed metal objects. Her garden includes native stone work, perennial borders, shade gardens, the cairn meadow, a small pond, vistas, views and outdoor galleries. Michelle says she sees the landscape as her canvas. Visitors will immediately understand what she means.
Host Artist: Michelle Allison makes fabricated and welded metal sculptures using steel bar, rod, sheet and plate as well as recycled agricultural and industrial elements. Her work includes scaled up urns, bowls, spheres, cubes and triangular solids constructed of ribs and rings with a large amount of negative space. She finishes her pieces with the bold colors of modern automotive “Hot Rod” paints and, for some work, a natural rust patina. Recently Michelle has been exploring metal based “abstract expressionism.”
Willington
Holes in the Woods, 17 Lustig Road, 860-878-0768
Garden: A labor of love, this garden includes streams, a half-acre pond, a colorful wildflower meadow, and acres of blooming mountain laurel. Two miles of named woodland trails wind through a lavish display of ferns, moss, boulders and ledge. There are traditional flower beds too. Trail maps available.
Host Artist: John C. Starinovich uses natural holes from downed trees combined with metals, crystals, deer antler, bone, shells, seed pods, various woods, LED lights, and most importantly, mirrors to create his sculptures. He uses a lengthy, controlled natural process to help him debark the wood while preserving the cambium layer. John uses both hand and power tools to create his one-of- a-kind art. He was featured on CPTV and has won numerous awards for his work. He has more than 100 wall hung and pedestal sculptures in his gallery.
NC Bunnell Studio, 12 Red Oak Hill Road, 860-377-7817
Garden: Nancy calls her garden “a bit of heaven painted on earth.” Through the years, she and her husband, a retired landscaper, planted flowering shrubs including azaleas, lilacs, hydrangeas, dogwood and a towering thirty-foot rhododendron. There are flower beds and vegetable gardens and a fishpond surrounded by butterfly bushes.
Host Artist: Nancy Cooke Bunnell is an award-winning pastel and acrylic artist. Her work ranges from realism to energetic abstractions. She is inspired by Ireland, landscapes, flowers, cows, lambs and recently, octopuses. She divides her time between creating paintings and teaching others. She is presently teaching abstraction at the Glastonbury Art Guild and a skill and creative based program for homeschool children at Willington Library. Her awards, too numerous to list, include first in state at the Connecticut Pastel Society.
Guest Artist: Julie M Beckham‘s work is characterized by a vibrant, shimmering color palette which she transforms into flowing, whimsical abstract and realistic compositions. She draws inspiration from nature with the aim that her paintings summon a joyful and blissful response. Julie’s work reflects a lifelong fascination with nature and the movement of water.