“ON THE EDGE – POLAR BEAR”: This work by James Fiorentino is featured in a display of his wildlife art in the Marie L. Matthews Gallery at D&R Greenway Land Trust.

The public is invited to a Holiday Open House and Art Sale on Saturday, December 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. at D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Johnson Education Center at One Preservation Place. MUTTS cartoons by Patrick McDonnell, watercolors by James Fiorentino, botanical florals by artist Liz Cutler, and landscape quilts by Deb Brockway will be on display in a new exhibit. Sales benefit the land trust’s work to preserve and care for land, maintain public trails, grow food for the hungry, and inspire a conservation ethic.

Attendees can enjoy cider, hot chocolate, and cookies at the free event.

McDonnell will be on hand to sign his books as holiday gifts. Twenty-five of his MUTTS cartoon prints, featuring environmental and animal themes, signed and remarqued with original drawings, are available for sale. These specially selected artworks illustrate McDonnell’s overriding message of compassion and kindness. His comic strip, begun in 1994, is now in over 700 newspapers and 20 countries.

Fiorentino began painting as a child and had his art featured in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., when he was just 15 years of age. He has created a set of baseball cards, as well as portraits of world heroes and celebrities. He is showing his wildlife art in the Marie L. Matthews Gallery at  D&R Greenway, with an emphasis on conservation of species. He will be available to talk with visitors on December 9 about his experiences banding birds, observing wildlife, and meeting celebrities.

Brockway is known to many locally as a trail builder. She has participated for over a decade in building trails on preserved lands. An accomplished quilter, she turned to landscape quilting to depict the beauty she found in nature. Quilts on display show a butterfly alighting on a flower, a hiker walking past spring ephemerals on a forest path, a kayak nosing into the water with wildlife, and a cardinal attempting to camouflage among the trees.

Retired Princeton Day School teacher Cutler, who led the school’s sustainability club to inspire students to observe and care for nature, is showing her botanical art in memory of her son, Isaac. Together, they walked Greenway Meadows park throughout his lifetime. Cutler turned to the meditative art of collecting and pressing flowers into unique artistic expressions during his illness. She follows the flower pressers ethos to ensure that anything she collects will do no harm to the species or environment.

Plein air paintings created by the Garden State Watercolor Society will be available for purchase through a silent auction.  These paintings depict different scenes from Hillside Farm, an 800-acre property with expansive views of Hopewell Valley.

For more information, visit drgreenway.org or call (609) 924-4646.