NORTH CANAAN — The scene outside Town Hall Monday was of one of devastation at the normally pretty little park adjacent to the parking lot. Small, conical-shaped trees that surround the fountain and benches were still in full leaf, not even having turned their autumn colors. They took the full brunt of about a foot and half of wet snow that fell Oct. 29 and 30. Branches snapped in all directions.Inside, volunteers had turned two meeting rooms into a shelter late in the weekend. North Canaan Elementary School is the designated shelter, but town officials were not able to get in Sunday. Both buildings have generators.Amid red-blanketed cots, small children happily played, one little boy shirtless in the welcome warmth. A mother said the cold was just getting to them, and with an electric stove, she couldn’t cook her children the hot meals that would have made the cold more tolerable.Two older girls were stretched out on a cot, playing games on a laptop. There was the air of a slumber party about the place. Volunteers were setting up more cots and filling a table with food, near a sofa and television.Selectman Charlie Perotti said he believes this is the first time a shelter has been used. During Tropical Storm Irene, the school shelter was set up, but no one came, he said.Others talked about how easy it is to hit a stage of hypothermia where one cannot get warm again. Extreme temperatures have a cumulative effect. Periods of relief are necessary for the body to regulate its temperature.The only thing missing was an opportunity to shower. Shelter volunteers said neither the school nor Town Hall have shower facilities — something they feel should be rectified. Locker rooms with showers were proposed for a past school renovation, but did not make it into the final design plan.Resident Bunny Edison, 90, said she was impressed that she had received a call Sunday asking if she needed shelter and a ride. “I thought I could stay, but I woke up during the night and I was shivering,” she said.In the morning, she decided to go to Town Hall, where she kept herself busy putting together Halloween goodie bags for local children.It was presumed trick-or-treaters would not be going door-to-door, but impossible to say for sure. As it turned out, many children did go out when power was restored in the town center Monday evening.With most landline, cell phone and Internet services down, the reverse notification system was essentially useless.State and town officials spread the news Monday that major transmission lines were damaged, accounting for the massive areas totally without power. An assessment of damage at substations that day was followed by removal of trees from and repair of power lines. Connecticut Light & Power was bringing in a reported 600 crews, but word then was that the transmission lines would not be repaired until Tuesday night. Some areas were expected to have power restored with those repairs, but most were expected to have to wait out substation and line work.On Tuesday morning, Gov. Dannel Malloy said CL&P was focusing on restoring power to town centers so that people could buy food and fuel. By then, only seven customers were still without power.
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Artist Victor Cella with his recent painting “White Dog” in his studio and shop, Little Store Antiques in Great Barrington.
L. Tomaino
Cella greets visitors while talking with a fellow painter who comments about his work and Cella himself: “Eclectic, amazing! Victor is decidedly loved in the community and exhibits to everyone his completely open heart.” She added, “He inspires the rest of us who paint.”
Cella began devoting himself to painting about four and a half years ago. He remembers taking art classes in high school. He had finished all his credits early and was allowed, in his senior year, to take art for four hours a day. He credits his art teacher, Mr. Owen, with giving him a good foundation in art.
“Now that I paint, I rely on my teacher’s words: ‘To unify a painting, pick a color and wash it over the painting,’ or, ‘You need to mix the colors!’”
He won a scholarship to New York University to study art, but his parents said no.Instead, he attended North Adams State College, where he also took an art class at Williams College, repeating a pattern from high school in which he finished his required credits early and used the extra time to study art.
He earned a teaching degree in special education and ended up working in schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut for 37 years. He retired in 2019.
Then, four and a half years ago, he got the urge to paint, and the paintings flowed out of him.
He has sold 757 paintings, with 95 of those sold since May 7. “I am having bizarrely good luck with my paintings.” He estimates he has painted 2,000 paintings in four and a half years.
He modestly attributes his success to “I sell low and I have a built-in client base of 51 years,” he said, referring to recurring customers in his antique shop. “A billion people give me feedback.” He has two patrons who each have several of his paintings. “Unbelievably,” says Cella, “one person owns 32 and the other owns 27.”
His studio is in the back of the shop. He paints now on 16-by-20-inch canvases, some of which he recycles, finding them at Goodwill.
Cella’s paintings are tucked in almost every available space thoughout Little Store Antiques. L. Tomaino
To keep his painting fresh and himself interested because, as Cella explained, “I can’t stay with one idea for long,” he has gone through several phases: crazy dogs, grids, flowers with black backgrounds, a geometric phase and “weird people.” The “crazy dogs,” as he calls them, are popular now. One person bought eight, left to go to her car and came back for a ninth, spotted in the shop’s window — the one that brought her into the shop in the first place.
He may even illustrate a children’s book with the “crazy dogs.” A local author liked them so much she asked Cella if he’d illustrate a story about three dogs if she wrote one.
Cella was also approached recently by a person who said, “Do you know you were my favorite teacher?” She came into The Little Store, attracted by the paintings in the shop’s window. It turned out the former student owns Crystal Essence on Railroad Street in Great Barrington and has asked to sell Cella’s paintings there.
Cella, who will soon be selling the building where The Little Store is located and move it nearer to his Southfield home, was glad to be offered a new venue for his paintings.
An artist he knows, Scott Prior, a painter from Nantucket, bought one of Cella’s paintings and gave him this advice: “Never go to art school. You are an artist. Let it pour out of you.”
Cella said, “You have to follow your own path.” He mused, “If I taught art, I’d teach it in a different way. I could teach it as an awareness — how to free yourself up.”
To see more of Cella’s work, visit The Little Store (88 Main St.) or Crystal Essence (39 Railroad St.) in Great Barrington.
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