The French family has been deeply involved in local happenings for as long as Europeans have inhabited these hills. Two members of the Mayflower Company who came to Plymouth in 1620, Richard Warren and Thomas Rogers, represent the family. They, like many other families, remained in Massachusetts for several generations before fanning out into other parts of the New World. The local branch came to our area from Taunton, Mass., which is located some 20 miles west of Plymouth.That fact by itself is not so remarkable, but in the early stages of the Richard Smith Forge archaeological undertaking, Walt Landgraf came into some interesting information about the Taunton branch of the French family.A William French, born in Taunton in 1740, came to Hartland in the 1760s. Indications are that he was the builder of Richard Smith’s forge in Robertsville, built in 1770. When the history of the earliest attempts at iron making in Massachusetts is consulted, several family names are prominent, among them Cobb, Williams, Hewit and Deane. All of these names appear in the French family genealogy.Coincidently, as the Robertsville forge investigation was getting underway, we were contacted by William C. French from Maine, the grandson of Correll French, a former Colebrook inhabitant, who had information about the “French Place” at the east end of Lake Marguerite in Sandisfield.My terminology, “French Place,” refers to what is today a cellar hole on a promontory east of the lake. This body of water was named Simons Pond after the original pioneer to the location, Eli Simons, who built his home there in the 1760s. Correll French, while living in Colebrook River, bought the old 200-acre Simons place and used it, primarily in the warmer months, until selling it to S. Wood McClave in December 1904. Shortly thereafter, the McClaves renamed the body of water Lake Marguerite, after their eldest daughter. This house site is located on an abandoned north-south road with the name “Beech Hill Road.” This is a little disconcerting for Colebrook people, especially those living on the upland known as Beech Hill. In Sandisfield, the name implies that the road leads to Colebrook’s Beech Hill, while in Colebrook, the road is Simons Pond Road, because that is where it leads to.Correll French’s grandson knew of the old place as I did: an abandoned farmstead being overtaken by vine and forest. He took several black-and-white photos during a visit in the late 1920s that look similar to the ones I took 20 years later. Whereas I have only my pictures, Mr. French is the owner of a large briefcase full of French family genealogy, maps and photos, all of which he most generously made available to the Colebrook Historical Society. One of these was a genealogy of the French family going back prior to the coming of the Pilgrims; another was a hand-drawn map of southwestern Hartland in 1790, with small areas of Colebrook and Barkhamsted (Riverton is referred to as “The Forks”).The very day that I met with William French, I was contacted by Walt Landgraf by telephone, and the first words out of his mouth were, “What do you know about the French family who used to live in Robertsville and Colebrook River?” Walt had just received information from Boston that a William French from Taunton, Mass., was most likely the actual builder of Richard Smith’s forge in Robertsville in 1770, and that additionally he probably had extensive knowledge of the infant iron industry as practiced in eastern Massachusetts Bay Colony. This information came from our research partner, David Ingram, who among other things is a past president of the Massachusetts Historical Society and past president of the Harvard Business School. Mr. Ingram spends much of his time doing research and has uncovered volumes of information concerning the iron and steel industry in southern New England, in particular Litchfield County. The Rev. Hollis French wrote articles in the old “Lure of the Litchfield Hills” and is still remembered by some of our oldest readers. For many years, Rev. French lived in Robertsville and taught in the Old Forge School. His home was 17 Old Forge Road, nearest to the new concrete bridge, whose predecessor bore the name “French Bridge.” The house site is only 300 or 400 yards from the site of the forge. It was his grandfather Correll who had a 5-acre farm in Colebrook River and the 200-acre one on Beech Hill Road in Sandisfield. One article Hollis French wrote for the Taunton, Mass. newspaper shortly before he passed on in 1967 was about Taunton families that had migrated to Hartland, Barkhamsted and Colebrook around 1770. I will include the list of names appearing in this article, as some of them still exist locally, and we would like to hear from you if you have family lore concerning the Colonial and Revolutionary periods. The list reads: Andrews, Burt, Cadwell, Covel, Cobb, Crane, Dean(e), Fox, French, Fuller, Gilbert, Hall, Hatch, Hewit, Hoskins, Jones, King, Leonard, Padelford, Read, Seymour, Smith, Stephens, White and Williams.One of the great frustrations in doing research into the early families in the southeastern section of Colebrook is the fact that Richard Smith purchased the entire section, consisting of some 285 acres. His workers built their houses on Smith’s land, and as a consequence, do not appear on town land records. It wasn’t until after the Revolutionary War was over that the large block of land began to be broken up and individual owner’s names appeared.Bob Grigg is the town historian in Colebrook.
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Author, educator and environmentalist Nancy Castaldo met with Region One students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School Friday, Nov. 6.
A Chatham, New York, resident who has written about 25 books on environmental subjects for young readers, Castaldo opened her “Good Farms = Good Food” presentation by describing the working farms she passed on her drive to Connecticut.
“I saw one that had animals called alpacas,” she said. “And another one with cows.”
She introduced the children to different kinds of farms, drawing them into the discussion with a series of true-or-false questions about where food comes from.
“People eat most of the corn grown in the U.S. How many think that’s true?” she asked.
A handful of children raised their hands.
“How many think that’s false?”
Most of the children stuck their hands up and waved them enthusiastically.
The answer was false. Most U.S. corn is used for livestock feed and ethanol production.
Sticking with the corn theme, Castaldo offered another statement: “Popcorn is not really made of corn.”
This time, the audience was split, with about half choosing true and half choosing false. The answer: false.
“Popcorn is made of corn, but it’s not the same as the corn on the cob we eat in the summer,” Castaldo said. “It’s a different variety.”
Castaldo also met with students in grades 3-5 and 6-8. A virtual presentation for HVRHS students is scheduled for later this month.
Author, educator and environmentalist Nancy Castaldo.Patrick L. Sullivan
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Kenise Barnes Fine Art presents “Cool & Collected ’26,” its annual exhibition celebrating the joy of collecting, featuring works priced under $2,000.
Part of “Cool & Collected” at Kenise Barnes in Kent.D.H. Callahan
Kenise Barnes, the gallery’s owner, has been gifting art to friends and family for years. Now, many of them have their own personal collections, with works carefully selected for and by them.
It’s not just aspiring collectors who benefit from this kind of show. Smaller price tags can often mean less pressure on the artists, giving them more to experiment.
“This exhibition encourages artists to play and explore while giving visitors the opportunity to acquire original artwork at an approachable scale and price,” Barnes said. “It’s a celebration of creativity, generosity, and the pleasure of living with art.”
Across the border in Millerton, a similar exhibition is up at The Re Institute. Artist and gallery owner Henry Klimowicz has curated a show that features more than 400 original works of art from more than 200 artists, all priced under $750. The exhibition is a continuation of an accessible art show put on by LABspace in Hillsdale, which routinely had more than 300 pieces in its small, two-room gallery. Klimowicz has also hosted an art gift shop at the Re Institute, with moderately priced art as the shop’s inventory.
The Re Institute’s Holiday Show features more than 400 works by over 200 artists through Dec. 6, with a closing party from 1 to 4 p.m. that day.D.H. Callahan
Klimowicz understands that even more moderately priced art isn’t necessarily any more accessible to all audiences. The first hurdle, he said, is that “buying art is a privilege. If you’re worried about buying groceries, you’re not buying art.”
With more and more people worried about groceries, the art market’s growth potential seems at least temporarily stunted.
The second hurdle is finding something that speaks to you.
“You have to decide that you like this unique thing. In America, we buy a lot of stuff. Almost everything we buy, we can count on the fact that we’re not the only person buying it.”
But when it comes to art, especially from emerging artists, there’s no market confirmation that what we’re buying is any good. You have to go out on a limb and trust your own taste to guide you.
“You can come here and you can purchase something truly unique, and that takes guts.”
For more information and gallery hours, visit kbfa.com and thereinstitute.com.
“I don’t really consider myself a traditional gallerist,” explained Terzian, a Southern California native who moved to Connecticut in 2008. “I see myself more as an artist advocate.”
Established in 2021 as a platform to promote the work of emerging and mid-career artists, Terzian’s gallery has grown into one of Litchfield County’s most compelling launching pads for contemporary art. Focusing on drawing, works on paper and paintings in ambitiously varied visual vocabularies, the gallery has built a reputation for its devotion to the artists’ methods, tools, materials and critical thinking. Terzian has also cultivated a niche rooted in an ethos that favors intense tactile engagement over sheer wall acreage.
“The gallery is really meant to create a very intimate relationship with the artist and the story behind their work,” said Terzian, who has spent two decades organizing exhibitions in galleries and museums and taught art history and museum studies at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington for six years. “It’s always very much about the process and I think the artists and the visitors to the gallery really recognize and appreciate that focus.”
That commitment to creative rigor is raising Terzian’s profile among art institutions. The gallery’s acceptance into the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) earlier this year marked a significant milestone, cementing its place within an international network of contemporary galleries and arts professionals dedicated to supporting vanguard talent.
“Her innate enthusiasm allows artists to test out new bodies of work on the walls in a supportive environment, creating space for both joy and growth,” explained Rebecca McNamara, chief curator at the Mattatuck Museum.
Jenny Kemp, whose solo exhibition “Reverbs” runs through Dec. 12, echoes that sentiment: “She encourages artists to lead in shaping their exhibitions and the installation, giving them the freedom to respond to the space and bring their own vision to it.”
While Litchfield County has long attracted creative minds, Terzian’s arrival in 2021 coincided with a period of cultural momentum, allowing her to tap into an expanding cadre of local talent. The gallery’s roster bridges mid-career artists such as Fritz Horstman, Kristin Lamb and Richard Pasquarelli, who have exhibited their work in museums, galleries and art fairs throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Yet her programming also crosses geographic boundaries seamlessly, bringing work by painters and paper-makers from Brooklyn, Providence, Berlin as well as artists working in established studios across Connecticut.
Jennifer Terzian’s gallery showcases emerging and mid-career artists, with a focus on drawing, works on paper and painting.Provided
Recent exhibitions highlight Terzian’s curatorial leanings toward precision and patience over hyper-commerciality. Jessica Smolinski’s mixed-media works probed memory and time through photography and textiles, while Aliza Morell employed holographic streamers against flat fields of color transferred to canvas via a layered material process. China-born artist Jenny Wu, who studied studio art at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and American University, poured and layered liquid paint until it took on dense, sculptural forms.
“The space feels like you are leaving the day’s responsibilities behind and entering a world of serenity,” said Wu, whose paintings explore composition, color and materiality. “Stand there, look at the works, feel them, and let them consume you for once.”
Terzian advocates for a more intimate scale to help amplify impact and says the diversity of aesthetics allows her to build a space tailored to creative rhythms of the artist. “It fosters a better dialogue between artist, curator and collector.”
The gallery’s momentum coincides with a broader revival across Litchfield. The recent arrival of three boutique hotels — The Abner, Belden House and Lost Fox Inn — has brought a steady influx of younger, design-conscious travelers to Connecticut’s northwest corner, energizing the town’s cultural landscape.
“I love for people who are new to Litchfield to walk down those stairs to my gallery and just come inside and just be educated about the artists and their work,” Terzian reflected. “Whether or not they walk away with purchasing something, I just think the experience of coming into a space and not feeling intimidated is valuable.”
For more information, visit jenniferterziangallery.com.
Troy McMullen is a former Wall Street Journal reporter in Berlin and New York and currently an executive editor at ABC News. His arts and culture reporting appears in several New England publications, including Litchfield Magazine, New England Home and Connecticut Magazine. He splits his time between Manhattan and a weekend home in Litchfield, adjacent to the Hauser Nature Preserve.
Cusack recently moved his painting practice from Torrington into the former church at 58 Main Street. The move came about somewhat unexpectedly, after a change in ownership made his previous studio untenable.
“At first I thought it was just gonna be too much,” Cusack said. When he first saw it, the building still looked unmistakably like a church, with its vaulted ceiling, stained glass and architectural details intact. It had served as a place of worship for generations before closing roughly 12 years ago.
But the space began to make sense.
“I’m very philosophical, very spiritual, very humanistic,” said Cusack. “And so for me to be in a church sort of fits.”
Cusack still lives in West Cornwall, where he has a garden he describes as mature and beautiful, along with a saltwater pool. The church is strictly a working studio, though he hopes to bring students in and occasionally invite other artists to exhibit alongside him.
“From Ground to Gravity,” 2026, Oil on Canvas, 77 x 65 inchesProvided
As with every studio, Cusack says, there is a particular direction and position that feels right for painting. In the church, he gravitated toward a spot where the geometry of the building creates a distinct rhythm, near where the pews once ended, before the altar.
“I can already see the arc of the dome involved in my work,” he said.
The first painting he made in the new space, “Prophets and Proverbs,” grew out of three forms he encountered during his morning meditation at home. After drawing and reflecting on them, he came to understand them as expressions of different aspects of maturity: “ego, strategy, agency.”
The exhibition’s title comes from “Nature Eternal,” a painting of a young nude figure in a pink field that evokes, for Cusack, the Garden of Eden and an idea of bliss and perfection. “The Narcissist,” by contrast, considers what happens after that innocence is lost: the arrival of consciousness, self-awareness and the search for identity.
Two paintings of swimmers explore another dimension of that relationship. In “I Will Love You Completely,” Cusack sees a figure reaching outward from the canvas almost like an angel. “It’s a message from the divine,” he said. In another painting, the swimmer appears to be held by the water, suggesting the possibility of being held by something larger than ourselves.
Having grown up in New York, Cusack says his relationship with the natural world has deepened since moving to northwest Connecticut. He thinks about the glacier that passed through this region, leaving stones behind that have remained through countless chapters of human history. In a painting of stones, Cusack considers the wisdom of the landscape and the extraordinary passage of time. “To me, that’s an eternal wisdom.”
Cusack regularly visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he sits in the sculpture galleries, contemplating and drawing the figures.
“Drawing is just a way of looking and continuing to look,” he said. “It just helps me ground myself and be very present.”
“Nature Eternal,” 2026, Oil on Canvas, 77 x 47 inches.Provided
That practice of extended observation can be seen in the paintings. At first glance, Cusack’s color palettes can appear remarkably simple, sometimes almost monochromatic. But the longer one spends with them, the more they open up. Subtle shifts in tone and color begin to emerge, deepening and expanding the visual experience. What initially seems restrained becomes increasingly expansive as the viewer gives the work time and attention.
Before turning fully to painting, Cusack spent 12 years as a commercial artist represented by Morgan Gaynin Inc., where his work became known for its emotive storytelling. His paintings have appeared in Architectural Digest, Veranda, New England Home and Litchfield Magazine, among other publications, and are held in the collections of the United States Air Force, the New York Transit Museum and the Society of Illustrators. His training included an MA at Syracuse University and a year of classical study in France’s Loire Valley with a master painter who was also a former Zen monk.
The church, meanwhile, has its own layers of history. During the many repairs required after Cusack moved in, a plumber mentioned that he had been married there. His wife had since died, and Cusack asked whether he was sure he wanted to return to the building. He was.
It is a small story, but one that seems to resonate with Cusack’s interest in the passage of time and the histories held by places and objects. Although he says he doesn’t feel a particular presence in the church, he is conscious of its history and of the community for whom it was once a gathering place.
For now, he is looking forward to welcoming people into his new studio and seeing how they respond to the paintings. “Interacting with the work” is important, he said. “It always feels good to have people in your studio space.”
“Eternal: New, Recent and Near Distant Paintings” will be on view Nov. 13–15, from 1 to 5 p.m., at 58 Main Street (the Stone Church) in North Canaan. An opening reception will take place Saturday, Nov. 14, from 4 to 7 p.m.
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