Montville artist features the town in 'Night Lights' at Lyme Art Association
Dec. 14—OLD LYME — Down the stairs of the Lyme Art Association, paintings are on display in the Mile Brook Gallery with familiar images from the nearby town of Montville.
The nocturne, or night-themed, paintings show a dimly lit home near Pink Row, the corner of Friendly's in the snow, the parking lot behind what was once the Beit Brothers supermarket and the Faria Beede Mill Property in its waning hours of operation.
Artist Polly Seip's first solo showing at the historic gallery, titled "Night Lights," is an ode to her surroundings and the town she has spent the past 17 years living in. The exhibit will be on display until Jan. 2, 2022.
The solo show was granted to Seip after she won first place in the Associate Artists Show with her painting "Twilight Romance," currently displayed in the "Night Lights" series.
Seip said she felt moved to paint artwork set in the night because it "creates a wonderful sense of magic and mystery" and for her love of light. "Light draws you in, and whether it is a street lamp or light casted from inside a home, it provides a feeling of peace and security."
She said the series began to take shape just months after her arrival to Uncasville, painting what she saw from her studio window. Over the years, she would take night drives, park in a public location, or a private location with permission, and take a photo to use for her paintings.
Her artistic style has always gravitated toward a fusion of new and old painting techniques she finds stimulating, she said, such as evocative composition, quality of light, color theory and the sophisticated use of thick and thin paint.
Seip wants the people of Montville to be aware that their town is documented through her artwork and said her work is also of historical relevance as the "blue-collar" town faces a transitional period.
"The town is being pulled out of economic depression and ushered into a faster-paced modern world," she said.
Her painting "Working Overtime" is a dusk-lit depiction of the Faria Beede Mill Property months before the manufacturer moved out in 2017. She mentioned how urban housing is now being constructed on the site.
Eugenia Villagra of Groton walked through the gallery with three of her friends last Thursday and admired Seip's collection of twilight paintings. Villagra, who was a docent at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford for 20 years, said she was especially impressed and excited to see a contemporary artist doing original work.
"She's done a beautiful job," Villagra said, "She's taken everyday life as subject matter and applied her skill set to rendering evening scenes dominated by big trucks and parking lots. They're things we're accustomed to seeing everywhere, but not as subjects for photos."
Born in Pittsburgh, Seip said she thinks her upbringing has given her an eye for nocturnal scenes of urban grit.
Uncasville and the entire town of Montville are no exception to this.
"Being an outsider and looking at it intimately," she said, "I see the hidden gems and beauty."
Editor's Note: This version corrects the spelling of Beit Brothers.
