NEW MILFORD — Gallery 25 and Creative Arts Studio is planning to host a pottery workshop with a Newtown-based potter this month. The exhibition space and studio is also preparing its first featured artist exhibition.

On Friday April 30, at 7 pm, Gallery 25 member Roberta Ahuja will lead a make-your-own-mug pottery workshop.

Participants will make a mug using a hand-building technique. Working with a slab of clay, they will decorate using texture and cutting, and mold the mug and add a handle.

In the end, participants will choose the glaze that Ahuja will apply after the firing. After the mugs are fired a second time, Ahuja will return them to Gallery 25, and students will be notified that they can pick up their finished pieces.

After raising two boys, Ahuja transitioned her career in 2017 from full-time mother to professional potter. She has enjoyed art since her early teen years, focusing on pottery since she and her husband moved to Newtown in 2003.

Today she makes pieces from scratch using different methods. She introduced her work publicly in 2013, when she had a booth at Newtown Arts Festival. Encouraged by the response she has participated in several art shows since then, has become an active member of Connecticut Clay Artists; a member of Artfish 42, an artist co-op in Milford; and a member of Clay Date Potters in Newtown.

She has been teaching pottery classes to middle and high school students at a homeschool co-op in Bethel since January 2015, as well as at YMCA Danbury, Newtown Community Center, for Newtown Continuing Education.

Ahuja also offers private lessons in her home studio, and recently began offering on-site workshops in group or corporate settings.

Ahuja’s work is currently part of the Clay Date Potters’ showcase exhibition on view at Newtown Municipal Center; her work in being presented alongside that of by fellow potters Ros Liljengren and Karen Pinto.

Cost for the 90-minute workshop at Gallery 25, which is suitable for ages 15 and above, is $35. Space is limited to six participants, so the gallery suggests contacting Ahuja as soon as possible at 203-290-9939 to register.

The showcase is in the main corridor of the municipal center, 3 Primrose Street. It can be visited weekdays between 8 am and 4:30 pm, and is on view until the end of May.

‘Still Life And Landscapes’

Susan Grisell works primarily in oil, and her paintings are representational, strongly influenced by the Impressionists.

Grisell’s works will be featured in “Still Lifes and Landscape,” which will be on view at Gallery 25 from May 1 to May 30.

Grisell considers her paintings a visual diary, an attempt to suggest some small truth seen on a given day and to convey her impression of it to the viewer. Her paintings are intended to suggest, rather than to dictate, and therefore invite the viewer to engage in a dialogue with the subject.

Following the guidance of her longtime teacher and mentor, the respected New England impressionist painter Bernard Lennon, Grisell has developed a style marked by faithfulness to nature.

“I like to paint with integrity, with line, color, and light that are true to what I see,” the artist said.

Her vigorous brushwork conveys her response to the subject simply and without affectation.

A lifelong resident of Gaylordsville, Grisell has been painting professionally for 50 years, having started at the age of 18. She has painted throughout New England and in New York City, Florida, North Carolina, Wyoming, New Mexico, California, France, and Italy. Grisell’s paintings are in private collections worldwide.

Her work has been included in many outdoor shows, and has taken numerous awards, including best in show in Mystic, Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit in NYC, and New Milford’s outdoor art show. She also received the Landscape Award in WSOAE, the Brackman Award for portrait and figure in Mystic, and best in show in Roxbury’s Art at the Meetinghouse.

She is a member of the Washington Art Association, and a past member of the Salmagundi Club and the Kent and Lyme art associations.

There are also paintings, photographs, jewelry, glass, pottery, and cards created by Gallery 25 members on view, their styles ranging from contemporary to traditional, including local scenes.

Gallery 25 is at 11 Railroad Street, in the historic railroad station in New Milford. It is sponsored by New Milford Commission on the Arts.

Gallery hours are 10 am to 4 pm Saturdays and Sundays.

For more information, visit gallery25ct.com or contact the gallery at gallery25newmilfordct@gmail.com.