Like this summer!

“Rained in Vacationers, Saturday Evening Post, 1948’’ (oil on canvas), by Stevan Dohanos, in the show “From the Masterworks of the Sanford B.D. Low Illustration Collection,’’ at the New Britain (Conn.) Museum of American Art through Dec. 31. Mr. Dohanos lived much of his adult life in Westport, Conn.

The museum says the exhibition “showcases some of the collection’s finest examples and features iconic and groundbreaking artists, such as Maxfield Parrish (1870–1966), Norman Rockwell (1894–1978), Stevan Dohanos (1907–1994), and many others. These artists captured distinctly American values through story and advertisement illustrations, as well as through cover illustrations for publications such as Scribner’s Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post. Among the themes addressed in these captivating works are American pastimes, family and friends, love and romance, war time, as well as fantasy and science fiction.’’

‘Light, color and shadow'

“Crush & Pull with Hands & Penlights” (Polaroid color prints), by Hartford-based photographer Ellen Carey, in her show “Struck by Light,’’ at the New Britain (Conn.) Museum of American Art, July 20 to Jan. 28

The museum says:

“Since the early 1990s, artist Ellen Carey (b. 1952) has created experimental and abstract works that defy photographic conventions. Struck by Light represents the largest survey of Carey’s innovative photo-objects and lens-based artworks. Spanning 30 years of her prolific career, the exhibition includes examples of her Photography Degree Zero (1996–2023) practice of Polaroid 20 X 24 lens-based images—including Pulls and Rollbacks—as well as her Struck by Light (1992–2023) series of camera-less photograms—Dings and Shadows—inspired by the earliest examples of paper photography. Collectively, the works trace Carey’s enormous contributions to the field of photography through her pioneering explorations of light, color and shadow, and are drawn from the collections of the New Britain Museum of American Art and the artist.’’

Polaroid Land Camera Model 95, the first commercially available instant camera. It went on the market in 1948. The “Land’’ for Edwin Land, inventor of the camera and the founder of Polaroid Corp., in Cambridge, Mass.

‘Unseen energy and forms’

“Wave Function I’’ (1993) (Vitreograph print from glass plates), by Mildred Thompson (1936-2003), in the show of her work, “Cosmic Flow,’’ at the New Britain (Conn.) Museum of American Art through Nov. 27

The gallery says:

“Mildred Thompson sought to represent natural phenomena through a distinctly unique language of abstraction. Her dynamic mark-making, color, and compositions visualize the force of unseen energy and forms in the universe, as reflected in this suite of 14 prints, on view at the NBMAA for the first time ever.’’

Find a surface and draw

NEW/NOW’’ (installation) by Shantell Martin, at the New Britain (Conn.) Museum of American Art. The museum says:

”One of the most versatile young artists working today, Shantell Martin is known for her exploration into the vast potential of the drawn line.’’

Downtown New Britain’s beautiful old commercial buildings. Up until the ‘70s, New Britain was a thriving factory town.

In 1907. Note the big elm trees, so common along the streets of New England towns and cities before the onslaught of Dutch Elm Disease