For The Love of Vermont

09/02/2026

What a great start to this new series!

This morning, the Southern Vermont Arts Center hosted the very first "First Wednesday" gallery talk with Anita Rafael, co-author of For the Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection.

Come by the Yester House on the first Wednesday of every month as Anita shares behind-the-scenes stories and insights about the artists, artworks, and historic places that make this celebrated collection such a remarkable portrait of Vermont.

And you never know, Lyman might just be there to share some stories as well!

09/01/2026

Starting tomorrow: discover the stories behind Vermont’s art and artists. Join Anita Rafael, co-author of For the Love of Vermont, for the first in a new monthly series of guided tours of For The Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection at Southern Vermont Arts Center.

On the first Wednesday of each month, Anita will share stories and insights about the artists, artworks, and places that make this celebrated collection such a remarkable portrait of Vermont.

Tomorrow, September 2—starting at 11:30 a.m. in Yester House at SVAC. Free with admission. Make a morning of it—explore the collection, enjoy the tour, and stay for lunch at curATE Café.

Learn more: svac.org/class/gallery-tour-for-the-love-of-vermont
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08/28/2026

Country Fair, c.1947
Oil on Canvas | 25 x 30 in.
Aldro Hibbard (1886–1972)

Vermont’s longest running country fair starts today and runs through Sunday in Bondville.

The ox pull start at 10am, today. We’ll be there. Not to be missed: the Craft and Floral Hall and the Quilt Hall. They open at noon today, after the judging is completed for Blue, Red, and Yellow Ribbons. We’ll be there too.

This painting, described as “Part of the American Scene” — as if drinking coffee was somehow an American thing — was featured in a 1947 Maxwell House coffee advertisement, with the line, “Like the friendly, familiar country fair…” (Ad pictured below.)

This is one of three paintings by Aldro Hibbard on display through May 2027 in the exhibition For the Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection in Manchester.

For more on For the Love of Vermont on Substack: https://fortheloveofvermont.substack.com

08/24/2026

With the first day upon us here in the Northshire, we are paying a visit to the 300 Days of For the Love of Vermont on substack: https://fortheloveofvermont.substack.com/p/schoolhouses-dorset-schoolhouse-felicia

Schoolhouses - Dorset Schoolhouse, Felicia Meyer Marsh

Here is a schoolhouse painting, currently on display in the new exhibition of For the Love of Vermont in Manchester. These paintings, part of an exhibition of some 90 paintings of Vermont in the first half of the 20th century are on display until May 2027.

This is an oil painting on Masonite of one of Dorset, Vermont’s one-room schoolhouses. Felicia Meyer Marsh likely painted this scene around 1950. According to members of the community who recall attending classes in this schoolhouse, the addition off the back of the schoolhouse was called the “cloak room.” There was an indoor “chemical” toilet in the room, they said, which simply meant that the children were instructed to dump in a small cup of lime after each use.

Excerpt from the book For the Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection (pub 2023):

Felicia Meyer’s name sometimes appears in catalogs as Felicia Marsh; she married the American artist Reginald Marsh, who was born in Paris in 1939. Lyman Orton has collected artwork by Reginald Marsh, but the subject matter does not pertain to Marsh’s time in Vermont; one is a New York City Bowery scene and another depicts Coney Island in Brooklyn. There are also paintings in Lyman’s collection by Felicia’s parents, Herbert and Anne Meyer. They were part of the Dorset Painters group, and joined the Southern Vermont Artists. Like so many of their colleagues, Reginald, Felicia, Herbert, and Anne traveled back and forth seasonally between New York City and Dorset.

Reginald Marsh spent time with Felicia and her parents in Dorset, but is alleged to have said he was not inspired to paint scenes of the Green Mountains and small towns, preferring the atmosphere and energy of big-city life. The artist Edward Laning, Marsh’s friend and colleague in New York City, plainly said, “He hated the country!” How ironic then that Reginald Marsh has a place for all eternity in the country. Reginald and Felicia (her ashes) are buried in Dorset’s Maple Hill Cemetery; Felicia’s parents are interred there, too.

08/06/2026

Village Life - Two White Horses, Paul Starett Sample
Almost a bird's eye perspective of the village of Brownington.

Looking at the high view in this composition, we had to ask several questions. Did Paul Sample hike up to this high ridge over the fields to be able to look down into the tiny village? Or was there a lane or a road that passed above the village and he just parked there and set up his portable easel and travel paintbox? We also wondered, was there a fence anywhere to contain the two white horses, or were they free to wander and graze on the hillside at will? Or did Sample just not include the fence in his composition?

One of the things that always gives Lyman Orton great pleasure with every new acquisition to his collection of the art of early 20th century Vermont is to go and find the places in the painting. He likes to walk in the artists’ footsteps, so to speak, and see where they set up their easels. He often comments on how the landscape has changed over the past 70 years. It’s likely that none or few of the open spaces that Sample painted are here still pastures and fields. The Vermont landscape was estimated to be 80% cleared space and 20% forested at the beginning of the last century, and now it is the other way around.

A word about the name of the village: In 1780 Timothy and Daniel Brown were granted a charter for settlement on land in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, but it is possible they themselves never lived there. The named town of Brownington was not organized until 1799 by early settlers named Elijah and Elisha Strong, and Amos Porte. By 1880 there were153 farmers in the town’s census. After centuries of working the land, much of the rural nature of the town is intact. It was a stop on the stagecoach route from Vermont into Canada.

Comparatively speaking, this is a huge canvas. Standing in front of this painting when it is on the wall in the gallery gives viewers the sensation of the expanse of this wide valley with its scattered dwellings and farmsteads. There are five works by Paul Sample in the current exhibition of For the Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection. Other works by him will be on display in future shows.

From 300 Days of For the Love of Vermont by A.R. on substack
https://fortheloveofvermont.substack.com/p/village-life-two-white-horses-paul

08/01/2026

07/23/2026

Discover the remarkable story behind Southern Vermont's artistic legacy. Join SVAC Curator Ruth Greene-McNally for Art Talk: Southern Vermont's Great Artists on Friday, July 24, from 5–6 p.m. in Yester House. This engaging talk explores the founders of Southern Vermont Arts Center, the generations of artists who made Manchester an artistic home, and the lasting impact of their work on American art and culture.

The program is free with admission and offers a deeper look at the people and vision that continue to shape SVAC today.
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07/23/2026

Although those are landslides and not ski slopes, it takes nothing away from this work.

Did you know that you can buy some of Luigi's etchings at the Southern Vermont Arts Center gift shop? You could take home a piece created by this beloved Manchester artist for your own home 🏡

Artist Luigi Lucioni died on this day on July 22nd, 1988.

He was born in October 1900 in Italy but grew up in New York. He studied etching and engraving at Cooper Union and painting at the National Academy of Design, and eventually began spending time in Vermont, where he was a member of Southern Vermont Artists in Manchester. He became well known for his paintings and prints of Vermont, and at one point, Life Magazine called him Vermont's "Painter Laureate."

Lucioni maintained many connections to Barre's Italian community and a number of his works ended up in VHS's collection. Here's a print of his etchings, "Shadow and Substance." He created it in 1945, and it features a barn with two short grain silos in front of a mountain. Ski slopes can be seen at the top of the mountain, and a steep is visible in the distance in the valley at the center left.