'Wee Faerie Village', New 'Fall Into Impressionism' Exhibit Now Open at Old Lyme's FloGris Museum

The Wee Faerie Village opens Saturday at the Florence Griswold Museum. This year’s theme is “*Gardener’s Grove: a Growing Community*.” Photo courtesy of the Florence Griswold Museum.

OLD LYME — The perennially popular Wee Faerie Village and a new exhibition titled, ‘Fall Into Impressionism‘ open today at the Florence Griswold Museum In Old Lyme.

The theme of the Wee Faerie Village this year is Gardener’s Grove: a Growing Community! and it celebrates the growing world with a wee community that is inspired by plants. Each site will be place for a faerie to live, work, play, or shop that is based on a single flora or plant type…flower, vegetable, bush, or tree.

The event will feature at least two dozen faerie installations as well as a roster of special events to compliment the theme.

Since 2009 over 190,000 visitors have immersed themselves in the spirit of imagination and whimsy that comes from visiting at least two dozen pint-sized installations across the Museum’s campus on a perfect autumn day.

*Autumn Sunlight* (1888) by.Theodore Robinson (1852–1896) is a signature painting of the ‘Fall Into Impressionism’ exhibition opening Saturday at the Florence Griswold Museum..OThe painting is oil on canvas and a gift of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company. Photo courtesy of the Florence Griswold Museum.

‘Fall Into Impressionism’ features selected artworks from the Museum’s permanent collection, which celebrate the appeal of fall to the Impressionists, whose flecks of paint capture the textures and colors of autumn.

For artists including Fidelia Bridges, Charles Ebert, Frank Vincent DuMond, Breta Longacre, Willard Metcalf, and Theodore Robinson, fall presented the opportunity to contemplate nature in transition. They appreciated both the season’s vibrance and its gradual movement toward much more muted colors.

Many of these painters spent August in cooler climes like Maine, but come Septeber, they flocked back to Connecticut as the weather cooled to paint outside in the drier air, particularly in locales like Old Lyme.

During the fall, leaves dazzled with reds, golds, and a multitude of other colors before falling to the ground. The artists would concentrate on the play of light and shadow in these autumnal months before the weather turned cold and maybe the first snow fell. At that point, they headed back to their studios in the city for the winter.

The Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am-5pm. Special event pricing is in effect at this time as follows: $23 Adults, $22 Seniors (62+), $21 Students (13+). Entry is free to Children 12 and under, and members.

For more information, visit the Museum’s website.