Community Corner
Art Auction Honors the Farmington Land Trust’s 50-Year History
Support land preservation in Farmington, and bring home an original painting by local artist Kate Emery.
Fine artist Kate Emery is auctioning her original oil painting, Canal Aqueduct Picnic, to benefit the Farmington Land Trust: a preservation nonprofit her father founded 50 years ago this month. The impressionistic painting was inspired by a 19th-century photograph of what is now the land trust’s Canal Aqueduct parcel. Bids will be accepted online at KateEmery.com/auctions through 8 p.m. on April 30, 2021.
“My dad started the Farmington Land Trust 50 years ago, and he’d be amazed by all that this great organization has accomplished in the ensuing years and grateful to those who’ve jumped in ensure that our community saves and cherishes its open spaces,” says Emery. “I’m thrilled to be able to contribute to the 50th anniversary celebration and ongoing fundraising through the auction of my painting, which is inspired by a historic image of a property I have visited often, both on foot and by boat, with and without a picnic.”
The 12x24-inch panoramic painting is one of several recent works inspired by Emery’s home town. A second-career artist who works full-time from her Farmington-based studio, Emery partners with charitable organizations so that each of her works sold benefits a community cause. “I’ve always wanted my work to make a difference,” says Emery, who founded The Walker Group, a Farmington-based technology and digital marketing services firm that donates one-third of any distributed profits to community projects. She also started reSET, a Hartford-based nonprofit that seeks to advance the social enterprise sector in the state by encouraging entrepreneurs who wish to use business as an engine for solving community or environmental problems.
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Emery will donate 75 percent of the price realized for the painting, valued at $900, to the Farmington Land Trust, which has protected 67 parcels—more than 300 acres of forests, fields, wildlife habitat and historic landscapes—since it was established in 1971. Interested bidders may see the painting on the artist’s website (KateEmery.com).