What To Do at the SM&NC
Featured Events & Programs
Nights Out: Paint Like Pépin
January 27, 2022 | 6 - 8 pm
Join us for a fun and relaxing night of watercolor painting flavored by Jacques Pépin’s masterful use of color and whimsical technique. You’ll use watercolors to evoke scenes or subjects of your own inspiration in the charming style of our current exhibition, “The Artistry of Jacques Pépin.” All materials will be provided. Refreshments, wine and nibbles will be served.
Family Maple Boildown
Friday, February 25 | 6 - 7:30 pm
Join us for an evening at the Maple Sugar House as we turn our maple sap into liquid gold! We’ll have the evaporator running, the fire pit on, and the farmhouse classroom open. Try different grades of maple syrup, make a maple-themed S’more over the campfire, create a craft, and if we are lucky, taste freshly-made syrup (once cooled of course!). We’ll have opportunities for families to come into the sugar house and tables inside and outside available for crafts and S’mores.
First County Bank Maple Sugar Fest Sundays
February 27 and March 6 & 13, 2022 | 10am - 2pm
We’re celebrating the season by bundling all the fun and games of a mini-festival into a single admission price, three Sundays this winter! Each Sunday we’ll open our site at 10 am with added attractions, enhanced programming, and fun seasonal offerings to delight the whole family until 2 pm.
The Artistry of Jacques Pépin
November 19, 2021 -- January 30, 2022
While Jacques Pépin is revered worldwide for his cooking, his artwork is less-known but equally compelling, intuitive, and creatively expressed.
Pépin began painting over 50 years ago, starting with hand-illustrated menus created to celebrate the joy of mealtime gatherings for friends and family. Since then, he has expanded to capturing animals (particularly roosters and chickens), farm scenes and rural landscapes in a charming, pastoral style with a vivid palette.
Jacques Pépin’s colorful, spirited paintings are intrinsically tied to his identity as a chef. Food plays a central role in his artwork, as both inspiration and subject matter. Pépin has said, “I don’t know whether my painting has helped my cuisine, or whether my cooking has helped my painting, and I don’t know if one borrows from the other. All I know is that, certainly for me, cooking and painting can live in harmony together. Both are different expressions of who I am, and both enhance my life considerably.”
Pépin explores his subject matter through a variety of media – watercolor, oil, and acrylic works on paper and canvas highlighted in this exhibition reveal his masterful use of color and his expert handling of the paintbrush. Whether he is depicting a jovial barnyard chicken or a verdant Connecticut landscape, Pépin’s artwork conveys a charming sensibility.
