DANBURY, CONN. — Robert Berlind will be the first of several accomplished artists to speak at Western Connecticut State University’s Master of the Fine Arts fall lecture series. The talks will begin at 11 a.m. in Viewing Room 1 of White Hall on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The lectures are free and open to the public.

Roberta Smith of The New York Times wrote in acclaim of Berlind, “The drama of his art emanates increasingly from the paint itself and from the play between depicted and real light and between depicted and real fluidity. The sense of the artist’s hand, mind and eyes increases, evoking oddly, both Williem de Kooning and John Singer Sargent.” Painter Robert Berlind is praised for his abstraction based work, which is lightened by his realism style, together creating pieces described as having, “a palpable sense of nature’s power and inevitability,” said Smith.

Wednesday, Sept. 5: Robert Berlind. Berlind is a painter who has been exhibiting abstraction-based work with realism style at a vast array of museums for more than 30 years as well as at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. He was educated at Yale and Columbia University and is the recipient of an award in painting from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also often publishes writings about art in publications such as Art in America. Berlind has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pollock Krasner Foundation.

Tuesday, Sept. 18: Alan Feltus. Feltus, a painter who has been represented by Forum Gallery in New York since the mid-1970s, believes that the purpose of art is not to strive to create something entirely new but to find one’s self—for it is the variation within an individual that enables something different to be produced. Feltus worked at the American Academy in Rome as a recipient of a Prix de Rome fellowship in addition to receiving the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Currently residing in Assisi, Italy, Feltus has taught in Italy as well as at American University in Washington, D.C. His work is exhibited both in the U.S. and abroad.

Tuesday, Oct. 2: Stanley Lewis. A well-established art educator, Lewis is a painter who has been a teacher and visiting artist at countless schools, including Dartmouth, Vassar, The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale. He has been a professor of painting and drawing since 1990 at American University and holds degrees from Wesleyan and Yale. His work is exhibited at locations such as Bowery Gallery in New York. “…He’s an alchemist who can turn trash to gold,” said Morgan Taylor in a review of Lewis’ 2008 Bowery show.

Tuesday, Oct. 16: Nancy Stahl. An illustrator from New York, Stahl was inducted into the 2012 Hall of Fame of the Society of Illustrators. Before moving to New York to begin her freelance career, Stahl studied at the Art Center College of Design in California and continued her studies at Parsons School of Design. Her work can be seen throughout our culture; ranging from editorial to packaging, corporate identity to postage stamps and in television commercials.

Tuesday, Oct. 30: Judy Glantzman. New York painter Judy Glantzman has exhibited her work since 1983. She first gained recognition for her early shows in the East Village and then at Blum Helman Gallery and Hirschl & Adler Modern. She later had a 30 year exhibition at the Dactyl Foundation. Stahl has received a Guggenheim fellowship as well as numerous grants. Her work is known for being emotionally charged and conveying raw feelings about human experience.

Tuesday, Nov. 13: Ross MacDonald. Newtown resident and self-taught artist, MacDonald’s illustrations have run in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. A 2011 recipient of the gold medal from the Society of Illustrators, he has been honored in many competitions for design and illustration. MacDonald has written and illustrated several books, most recently the adult parody “In and Out with Dick and Jane: A Loving Parody.” MacDonald also has worked as an illustrator, prop designer and design consultant for movies such as “Sea Biscuit” and “National Treasure” and is currently involved with the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire.”

Tuesday, Nov. 27: Susanna Coffey. Coffey’s work has been shown extensively since 1982 throughout the U.S. and in France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Korea. She has received many grants and awards for her work from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Coffey also has been featured in publications such as Art in America, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune. Coffey is passionate about exploring representations of the feminine within the history of painting.

For more information, call (203) 837-8410.

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