Baragwanath’s Beach Scenes, At Booth Library

On view in the Olga Knoepke Memorial Meeting Room at Cyrenius H. Booth Library through April 26 are paintings by Trumbull artist Janice Baragwanath.

Although primarily a portrait artist, Ms Baragwanath enjoys a variety of subject matter and, like many artists, paints her passion. She loves to walk by the sea. This exhibit is about those walks and includes works inspired by Fort Trumbull Beach in Milford, the glorious Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, and Manor Park in Larchmont, N.Y., where she spent her childhood.

Working in both transparent watercolor and gouache, Ms Baragwanath captures brilliant blue New England skies over Long Island Sound and colorful clouds above the turquoise Caribbean. Because so many of the beaches in New York and Connecticut are private in the summer, these are visited off season. Tropical scenes are from the Cayman Islands, where Ms Baragwanath has been showing her work at Pure Art Gallery for the past ten years, and from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.

Ms Baragwanath attended Rhode Island School of Design on a Ford Foundation scholarship and went on to Cooper Union School of Art and the San Francisco Art Institute, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She also studied extensively with portrait artist Daniel E. Greene in his North Salem studio, Steven Assael at the New York Academy of Art, and John Falato at Paier College of Art.

Since 1986 Ms Baragwanath has been teaching drawing and painting in her Trumbull studio and has taught several workshops for The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown. Last summer she participated in the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists show “Faces of Newtown,” which celebrated the town’s tercentennial. Her painting of Superior Court Justice Edgar Bassick hangs in the Bridgeport courthouse and her portrait of Judge Dennis Harrigan is in the Superior Court of Stamford.

Ms Baragwanath’s paintings have twice been featured in Watercolor magazine (Winter 1999 and Winter 2002) and one of her tropical images was on the cover of Horizons, the official in-flight magazine of Cayman Airways.

The artist has won numerous awards, including Best of Show at SCAN’s 2003 exhibit. In 2005 she won awards from SCAN, Connecticut Classic Arts, Academic Artists, and two from the Connecticut Watercolor Society.

Her work has been included in national exhibitions of the American Artists Professional League, North East Watercolor Society, Hudson Valley Art Association, Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Society, Allied Artists of America, New England Watercolor Society, and in regional shows of Connecticut Women Artists and The Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists.

Library hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 8 pm; Friday, noon to 5 pm; Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm; and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm.