Art Tour: Studio Visits, Westport, CT

First stop—the studio of artist Nina Bentley, who has exhibited extensively in Europe and the U.S. She has won a number of awards in regional juried shows including Art of the Northeast, the Mattatuck Museum, the Katonah Museum and the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport. She has held solo shows at the New Britain Museum of American Art and at Silvermine. She has exhibited at CT galleries such as New Haven University, Seaton Gallery and Central Connecticut State University. She has curated exhibits for the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, the Westport Historical Society, Westport Arts Center and the Rye Art Center. Her works are included in many private collections.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Great Neck, NY, Bentley attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she studied fine art and graduated in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in History. She lived much of her adult life abroad in such places as Bologna, Frankfurt, London, Zurich, Santiago and Caracas. Bentley worked as executive director of the Rye Art Center in the 1980’s and has served on the Board of Directors of the Westport Arts Center. She is active with the Silvermine Guild of Artists.

Her work tends to be conceptual in nature, she says, and concerned with social issues. “From early childhood I have been moved both by aesthetics and the human condition, not only matters affecting me personally but those evident on a broader social scale. I create art in order to gain some perspective on the world around me while trying to retain a sense of humor. In short, my work can be seen as multi-dimensional social commentary.”

Our second stop will be to Dale Najarian’s studio. Dale is an internationally recognized artist. She received her BFA from Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia and worked for over 15 years as a Graphic Designer and Art Director. Dale is a painter who has experimented with several mediums including mixed media, watercolor, acrylics, and oils. She has a passion for photography and documenting her experiences is a large part of her creative process. Her paintings capture the ever changing relationship between dark and light while merging the realistic quality of a photograph with the abstract translation of a scene to depict a dreamlike painting that draws you in. dalenajarian.com