Higganum House Antiques offered this wooden Mickey Mouse with original paint for $125.

Paintings and Watercolors on View at The Cooley Gallery

OLD LYME, CONNECTICUT — An inspiring chapter in the life and creative career of Maurice Sapiro is explored in “Renaissance,” an exhibition comprising more than 40 paintings and watercolors at The Cooley Gallery through October 14.

Forty years ago, Sapiro, who lives with his wife in North Haven, Conn., apparently abandoned his dream of establishing himself in New York as a fine artist. Having exhibited at The Little Studio to both critical and commercial success as well as The Art Students League and The National Academy, Sapiro moved to the New Haven area to begin a rewarding life as a musician and music teacher.

During these years the artist cultivated myriad talents. Sapiro has published articles and books on clay form modeling methods, built his own harpsichord, taught himself a high level of color photography and did his own color processing. He has dabbled in inventing and in optics as well, all the while, however, continuing to experiment with painting in watercolor and in oil.

Two years ago Sapiro committed himself to creating a body of work in oil for which he hoped to find a venue for exhibition. The Cooley Gallery has reintroduced his landscapes, still lifes, and dreamscapes. Fascinated by “the moment when natures fuses light and air, and creates a work of art”, Sapiro captures the ethereal, spiritual, magical tones, light and mood of nature. In delicately and subtly applied glazes, his images explore the moods of morning and evening on marshes and rivers of the area. Still lifes evoke a sense of both mystery and beauty in their hints at abstraction, and occasionally Sapiro takes on the human figure with an eye for the exotic and arresting character.

The gallery, at 25 Lyme Street, is open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For information, 860/434-8807.