A summer garden spills color from generous blossoms and offers a glimpse of paradise before its petals twirl gently to the earth for a rebirth.

Such splendor and unending vitality inspired the brush of the late American Impressionist Roger Dennis, who had a special affinity for garden scenes. He created more than 200 in a career that spanned some 75 years.

Dennis died on the threshold of winter - December 13, 1996 - a date readily recalled by friend and agent Patricia Shippee. Yet, perhaps because his devotion to light and beauty rekindles his memory in all who admired him, a vision and team to create a memorial garden for him was well under way in the depth of winter.

Located on the grounds of the Griffis Art Center's Artists-in-Residence buildings off Granite Street in New London, The Roger W. Dennis Impressionist Garden is already beginning to bloom, with a dedication and celebration to be held there from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Gentle paths swirl around the perennials, herbs and shrubs which comprise an "Impressionist palette" of lavender and pink and white combinations to create the soft, romantic look associated with the turn of the century says Sharon Griffis, founder of the Griffis Art Center.

A plaque naming the garden rests on the ground below a large stoneware urn. A celebration of his works will be on display in the Gemfire Studio, also located on the Griffis Art Center grounds. The paintings that will be hung are all owned by private collectors and are depictions of garden scenes.

Born in Norwich in 1902, Dennis lived in Connecticut all his life. He was considered to have been the last surviving link to the American Impressionists that congregated at Florence Griswold's mansion in Old Lyme, and his passing created an "outpouring of emotion" in the people who knew him, says Griffis.

Garden spreads the seeds of Roger Dennis' creativity.

The plants selected for the garden were flowers that Dennis loved to paint, and included some plants from Dennis' own garden. People who wanted to have an active part in paying homage to him could send a contribution toward one of the beauties named on a list - plants like butterfly bush, iris, poppy, and peony. Some also volunteered to plant.

The garden is a breathing memorial that responds to Dennis' style and spirit. Shippee, who represented Dennis for 25 years and had the honor of a friendship, has devoted a whole gallery in Old Lyme to the works of Dennis.

Shippee describes Dennis, who served as an art conservationist for the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, as "a bit of a curmudgeon" - albeit a self-appointed, bemused one. But she pauses only briefly before explaining that he was also the dean of American Impressionist painter who preserved the simple, retiring life of the past.

"The happiness. You can see happiness as well as beauty. He had a lot of depth of understanding…about color, composition as well as the beauty of where we live…color, light, beauty - that's what his paintings were about, and that's also what this garden is about.

Dennis admired the great American Impressionists who converged at the Florence Griswold mansion in Old Lyme, and as a young man was influenced by the informal tutelage of Frank Bicknell and Guy Wiggins. He once or twice sat quietly in on some if the lively suppers at the mansion.

Just as the great artists of the Lyme art colony were nurtured at Florence Griswold's boarding house, sharing the sunlight, pastures and passion, a similar structure exists for artists who come to the Griffis Art Center.

The Center's Artist-in-Residence building hosts artists from all over the world for six-month stays in New London. At the end of their residency they are asked to leave one painting behind. Some of the works hang in the moody 1865 building known as the Sapphire House, which is separate from the Artists-in-Residence building.

The Sapphire House, once owned by the wealthy Armstrong family, was turned into housing for soldiers after World War II. Later, it became a series of apartments that went downhill. When Griffis acquired it in the '90s, about 63 tons of debris had to be removed to make way for apartments.

With glimmers of Federal, Georgian, and neo-classical styles, the building defies an architectural genre. It houses 11 apartments available for artist of all media to rent - starting at $450 to $675 a month, including utilities. High ceilinged common rooms offer gathering areas for the artists to mingle. The opportunity for a break from an artist's solitude is always a door away.

But solitude is a requirement for many artists. Roger Dennis knew that better than most and Dennis' friends say he often was dismayed as the development of land gobbled up his beautiful landscapes. As he aged, fewer sites were left for him to freely set up his easel and delve into the on-site work he loved so much.

A garden, a beautiful garden in full bloom - revitalizing the community and one day to be painted by visiting artists - is a continuum of his spirit, where he can blossom again, year after year.

-by Sharma L. Howard
Special Contributor to The Day

left: Bui Mai Hien & Bui Sui Hoa, 1998 visiting artists from Vietnam in the garden. below left: "Sky Break" the first garden painting given to the GAC Collection by Bui Sui Hoa. below right: Visiting Magnet School children in the garden.