Dates:  June 14 – July 27, 2025

Reception: Saturday June 14, 4 – 6 PM, public invited

Gallery hours: Thursday – Saturday 11:00 – 5:30, Sunday 12:00 – 4:00 and by appointment

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is honored to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Janna Watson. Watson is a conceptual painter based in Toronto, Canada. Poems Without Words is Watson’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery who has included Watson in eight other exhibitions and placed her work in numerous private collections. The gallery has represented the artist since 2017.

Through her practice, Watson works to reframe spirituality into objects that reflect fluidity, agility, and joy. She communicates this through a queering of the painterly process, into one that is diversely applied, gestural, and multi-oriented. Janna intentionally forgoes the use of borders on her paintings to create a sense of the infinite, and the inherent vulnerability of a spirituality that is not contained by a canon.

Janna Watson’s compositions and color choices are both careful and spontaneous, each gesture evoking an unstated emotional response. The paintings are generous passages of vivid color with swooping buttery paint strokes, and calligraphic marks floating on fields of saturated color. They are not spare, but they have an implied economy of language, each gesture gathered towards the others with an unseen gravitational force coalescing into a graceful equilibrium.

Part of the exhilaration I acquire from painting is being able to see shifts within myself manifested into a physical reality. The most truthful form of expression I have found in my life thus far has been the abstract language of painting.  – Janna Watson, 2025

Janna Watson’s work is widely exhibited internationally including in Canada, the United States and Taiwan. Watson’s paintings can be found in significant collections including Google, Air Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, Toronto, CIBC, Toronto, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Toronto, HBC Global Art Collection, New York, to name a few. Watson earned a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto.

Please contact Lani Ming Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.

Our Volunteer Guides will lead this easy to moderate 2-to-3-mile hike at Deer Pond Farm. Enjoy birdsong, summer blooms, and good company on this casual hike.  

PLEASE NOTE: This program meets at 57 Wakeman Hlll Rd, Sherman CT

Please register here

FREE

Dates:  June 14 – July 27, 2025

Reception: Saturday June 14, 4 – 6 PM, public invited

Gallery hours: Thursday – Saturday 11:00 – 5:30, Sunday 12:00 – 4:00 and by appointment

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is honored to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Janna Watson. Watson is a conceptual painter based in Toronto, Canada. Poems Without Words is Watson’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery who has included Watson in eight other exhibitions and placed her work in numerous private collections. The gallery has represented the artist since 2017.

Through her practice, Watson works to reframe spirituality into objects that reflect fluidity, agility, and joy. She communicates this through a queering of the painterly process, into one that is diversely applied, gestural, and multi-oriented. Janna intentionally forgoes the use of borders on her paintings to create a sense of the infinite, and the inherent vulnerability of a spirituality that is not contained by a canon.

Janna Watson’s compositions and color choices are both careful and spontaneous, each gesture evoking an unstated emotional response. The paintings are generous passages of vivid color with swooping buttery paint strokes, and calligraphic marks floating on fields of saturated color. They are not spare, but they have an implied economy of language, each gesture gathered towards the others with an unseen gravitational force coalescing into a graceful equilibrium.

Part of the exhilaration I acquire from painting is being able to see shifts within myself manifested into a physical reality. The most truthful form of expression I have found in my life thus far has been the abstract language of painting.  – Janna Watson, 2025

Janna Watson’s work is widely exhibited internationally including in Canada, the United States and Taiwan. Watson’s paintings can be found in significant collections including Google, Air Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, Toronto, CIBC, Toronto, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Toronto, HBC Global Art Collection, New York, to name a few. Watson earned a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto.

Please contact Lani Ming Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.

Enjoy a shady stroll along the trails of Deer Pond Farm and discover the various ferns common to the Northeast. CT Audubon Society Volunteer Naturalist Diane Nizlek will lead this walk and share the basics of fern identification and reproduction. Join us as we learn a few fun facts about some of the oldest plants on Earth and how they support local wildlife. 

PLEASE NOTE: This program meets at 57 Wakeman Hill Rd., Sherman, CT 06784 

Please register here

$5 members; $10 non-members

Have you ever wondered how birds survive the “dog days” of summer? Join us at Deer Pond Farm for our Summer Bird Behaviors program. Starting in the classroom, avian expert Lori Lichtenauer will discuss how parent birds care for fledglings, bird molting patterns, when and how birds prepare for their long-distance migratory journeys! We will hit the trails for the last hour of the program. 

PLEASE NOTE: This program meets at 57 Wakeman Hill Rd., Sherman, CT 06784 

Please register here

$5 members, $10 non-members   

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

Blacksmithing Workshop

July19th 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Join us as we explore blacksmithing techniques and methods through a hands-on workshop at the Eric Sloane Museum. Have you ever wondered how hand forged metal objects are created? This hands-on class will be taught by blacksmithing expert, Ian McCarthy. Students will learn the basics of hand forging and design layout all while using traditional tools and methods to create a one of a kind finished product. Pre-Registration is required. Register Today

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

Laurel Canyon, California has long been synonymous with some of the greatest songwriters of the late 1960s and early 70s. Among the artists living there and inspiring each other were Joni Mitchell, Carol King, Mamas and the Papas, Jackson Brown, Linda Ronstadt, Buffalo Springfield, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. You’ll be treated to performances by Rob Brereton, Nick Patrone, Noelle Chave, Emily DeMasi, Missy Alexander, Bill Petkanas, George Mallas, and Susanna Marker. Feel free to don your love beads for this special evening of music and nostalgia.

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

Discover the flowers, birds, and butterflies of Deer Pond Farm with Sanctuary Manager / Naturalist Lori Lichtenauer. Starting in our pollinator garden, we will discuss the phenology (seasonal cycles) of native flowering plants and how this impacts the insect and bird communities. Then we will explore the life in and around our nature preserve! 

PLEASE NOTE: This program meets at 57 Wakeman Hill Rd., Sherman, CT 06784 

Please register here

$5 members, $10 non-members

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

Outside of the World

Peggy Mercury is pleased to announce the opening of its next show “Outside of the World” recent painting by Deen Modino.

With inspirations ranging from 60s sci-fi movies and Looney Tunes scene-scapes to Holiday Inn muted carpets and pop art flower bedspreads, Modino’s paintings are like stills in a moving diorama. At once familiar and unfamiliar, these works buzz with an underlying tension of drama and even revolt.

Email hithere@peggymercury.com or DM us on IG @itspeggymercury for more information.

For more information about Deen Modino:

deenmodinopaintings.com

@deenmodino

Peggy Mercury

9 Maple Street

Unit 2

Kent, CT 06757

BEAT THE HEAT WITH FABULOUS SUMMER SALES AND FUN! 

If your idea of fun is great sales, fabulous food, and music, Kent is the place to be the first weekend of August. Rain or shine!   

Sponsored by the Kent Chamber of Commerce the Kent Sidewalk Sale Day takes place in 2025 from Thursday August 7 through Sunday August 10. The event is free and offers super-sized retail therapy as well as entertainment for the whole family. A schedule of events will be posted on the Sidewalk Sale Days page as we get closer to the event.

BEAT THE HEAT WITH FABULOUS SUMMER SALES AND FUN! 

If your idea of fun is great sales, fabulous food, and music, Kent is the place to be the first weekend of August. Rain or shine!   

Sponsored by the Kent Chamber of Commerce the Kent Sidewalk Sale Day takes place in 2025 from Thursday August 7 through Sunday August 10. The event is free and offers super-sized retail therapy as well as entertainment for the whole family. A schedule of events will be posted on the Sidewalk Sale Days page as we get closer to the event.

Wooden Spoon Carving Workshop

August 9th 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Join us as we explore hand carving techniques and methods through a hands-on workshop at the Eric Sloane Museum. Have you ever wondered how hand carved spoons and bowls are created? This hands-on class will be taught by woodworking expert, Rick Liegl. Students will learn the basics of wood selection and design layout all while using traditional tools and methods to create a hand carved finished product. Pre-Registration is required. Registration Information

The Rough & Tumble are a folk/Americana duo, consisting of Mallory Graham & Scott Tyler. Forming in 2011, they spent 8 years full time in a 16ft camper with two big dogs, playing roughly 150 shows a year. At home at festivals, listening rooms, and house concerts across the country, their commanding stage presence, engaging performances and affecting songwriting won them official showcases at Folk Alliance International, NERFA, SERFA and the Independent Music Awards Americana Song of the Year for their song “The Hardest Part".

In 2023 they received recognition for their work in New England as recipients of Club Passim's Iguana Music Fund. Only This Far, the band's most notable work, was released in 2023 and has been described as "quality songs, well written, well played, well sung and arranged, and a pleasure from start to end." In November 2024, The Rough & Tumble released Hymns For My Atheist Sister and Her Friends To Sing Along To, a collection of deeply personal, unifying and uplifting, humanist gospel songs. 

BEAT THE HEAT WITH FABULOUS SUMMER SALES AND FUN! 

If your idea of fun is great sales, fabulous food, and music, Kent is the place to be the first weekend of August. Rain or shine!   

Sponsored by the Kent Chamber of Commerce the Kent Sidewalk Sale Day takes place in 2025 from Thursday August 7 through Sunday August 10. The event is free and offers super-sized retail therapy as well as entertainment for the whole family. A schedule of events will be posted on the Sidewalk Sale Days page as we get closer to the event.