Celebrate with a visual treat to share with someone special or as a gift to yourself during a month we traditionally shower loved ones with gifts of chocolate and flowers. Come to “Heartfelt Expressions” where Canton Artist Guild members have created sculpture, fiber art, prints, drawings, paintings, mixed media and photography to stir the magic chemistry of amorous delight.

Upstairs are two additional shows. Aaron Borkowski’s “In My World” is dazzling and surprising. He has found techniques to digitally transform his photographs of the natural world into abstract kaleidoscopic patterns of color and form. His recent turn to concentrating on this type of imagery builds upon strong familial artistic influences and a penchant for applying new technologies.

The second show, “3 Palettes,” features Kathleen DalSanto, Roger Niland and Mariann Weiss. Each of these well-established artists draws upon a distinctive style and training to create landscapes or finely rendered floral paintings of New England and beyond.

DalSanto’s work has been changing from realistic landscapes to more expressive paintings, reflecting the strong influence of her study of the art of Kandinsky, DeKooning, Pollock and Picasso in his cubist period. Her oil and acrylic paintings are characterized by brilliant color, direct brushwork and rhythmic compositions. DalSanto completed a BFA from Saint Joseph’s College in Indiana and has exhibited in a wide range of venues in the Hartford area.

Niland uses his own photographs as a starting point for landscapes that are “inspired by intimate spaces rather than vistas. I try to evoke my own life experience of camping and hiking in the woods, still my go-to therapy. My world is right and bright when walking through a blowing early morning lantern of autumn leaves. Time matters less to me standing at the bottom of a cataclysmic rift in alternating layers of lava and ancient lake beds [and] picking up a pebble, torn and tumbled sometime from somewhere north.” The poetic sensibility is gorgeously evident in his acrylic paintings. Niland took graduate level art courses and earned an M.A. at Wesleyan University. His work has been at many Connecticut galleries including the New Britain Museum of Art.

For Weiss the color and softness of chalk make it an ideal media for expressing what she feels is her “appreciation of belonging in this crazy world.” Pastel painting brings her “happiness and a sense of control,” and viewers will surely take great pleasure in seeing the results. She has a B.A. from the University of Connecticut and took graduate course at The University of Hartford Art School. Her work has been shown at The New Britain Museum of American Art where she won first prize in a members’ show.

The opening reception for all three shows is Saturday, February 11th from 6:00-8:00 pm.  The reception including refreshments is free, and the public is warmly invited.