Whitney Center – Main Street Exhibition

Whitney Center – Main Street Gallery – Hamden, CT
September 22 to January 5, 2027

Flowers & Forests – at the Whitney Center

“To paint is to love again.” Henry Miller 

This show of new oil paintings is inspired by the lush natural beauty of Hamden’s forests, waterways, and our own backyard, which I call “Tom’s Farm”.

From small “alla prima” portraits of flowers from our garden to wall-sized atmospheric paintings inspired by walks through East Rock Park, these works are the culmination of almost three years of looking at and being inspired by our new home. 

After painting California for thirty years, learning the visual language of Connecticut in all its seasons has been daunting, exhilarating, and profoundly rewarding.

Erin Lee Gafill

Flowers from the Garden

Every morning for the month of August and into September, Tom brought me flowers. Every morning after coffee I climbed the steps to my studio, set the flowers in the light, squeezed fresh paint onto my palette, and painted them.
I had other things to do. I had other things to paint.
But I felt a sense of urgency. The summer was upon us and yet it felt as though any moment winter would be at our door, the flowers just a memory. Each painting became a call to presence, to embody the moment, to truly see.
The still life has often been used to express the idea of memento mori and in these paintings I painted quickly to create a sense of the fleeting nature of the moment, striving for a quick and immediate impression of light and color over specific details or photographic “realism”. I wanted each painting to feel like that first glance I experienced when Tom set a new bouquet on the table before me.
My approach to these paintings is inspired by the last works of Èdouard Manet, small portraits of posies he created from his sick bed toward the end of his life, a daily act of both defiance and celebration.

Exhibition Preview –