THE dual personality of a town that swells with summer folk and tourists is best parsed in the off-season, when a community's spine is laid bare as the trees. And so it is with Kent, a small town of under 3,000 year-round residents bisected by Route 7 some 30 miles north of Danbury.

Village life is sustainable indeed -- for Manhattan weekenders, flinty natives and day trippers -- with a year-round menu of essentials and amenities, and a penchant for the arts that dates back to the ''landscape tourism'' of painters who were attracted to the state's rugged northwest corner once the Shepaug Valley Railroad made it accessible in 1872.

The Litchfield hills are still larded with writers, painters and sculptors, who find inspiration there year round. But some of Kent's half-dozen galleries have just begun to reopen or expand their hours for the warmer seasons.

The Kent Art Association, which features members' works in multiple mediums, is the oldest gallery in town. Founded in 1923 by nine expatriates of the Manhattan art scene who moved north, it was a moveable feast of yearly shows until 1956, when it acquired permanent space on Main Street. At the Ober Gallery on Old Barn Road, Russian artists and German neorealists are the penchant of the owner, Rob Ober, who also teaches history at the private Kent School. The Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery, in an old Masonic Hall on North Main Street, is most often dedicated to the work of little-known artists discovered by the owners.

Steadfastly open all year is the Morrison Gallery in the town center, a linchpin of Litchfield County's art scene. It occupies a soaring, modern space. And there is nothing backwoods about its enriching group exhibitions and solo shows that keep pace with established and emerging contemporary artists. Openings and receptions, often with live jazz, draw collectors from Manhattan, the Litchfield Hills and beyond.

Pointing to a witty, beguiling abstract canvas by Gary Komarian, William Morrison, the owner, said it was just sold and was on its way to a home in Colorado. ''In the winter,'' Mr. Morrison said, speaking softly in the huge and sparsely peopled space, ''Kent is ... well, Kent. But art never hibernates.''

Spring meanderers feeling a bit peckish will rejoice to find no line snaking out of that Main Street anchor, Strobles Bakery and Cookery. In summer, the line out its doors swells with weekenders and famished hikers from the nearby Appalachian Trail craving blueberry scones and an assortment of over-the-top cupcakes, from chocolate mousse to carrot cake.

Stowing some Strobles provisions, we drove five miles north to salute Kent's natural wonder at Kent Falls State Park. We found that the majestic 250-foot falls are part of the area's artistic heritage. At the entrance to the park, visitors are greeted by a reproduction of a painting called ''November Mosaic'' by the Yankee Impressionist Willard Metcalf. It is part of the Connecticut Art Trail, which shows how artists have depicted local landscapes over the last century.

The stretch of Route 7 between Kent and tiny Cornwall Bridge offers something every mile or so that it snakes along the Housatonic River. The retail store for Cornwall Bridge Pottery is in West Cornwall, and farther south on Route 7 visitors can watch potters at work in the studio and browse a shed with discount seconds.

Got antsy children in the car? A beloved pup at home? Pile out at the Dog Show, on Route 7, adjacent to Kent Falls State Park. The small store selling dog art and pet accessories is open on weekends. And visitors -- old, young and four-pawed -- are welcome to wander the surrounding installation known as Sculpturedale, the life-size metallic menagerie of elephants, crouching panthers, giraffes and canines that rear, lurk and paw amid the trees. They are the work of the sculptor Denis Curtiss, whose studio is on the grounds.

On the way back into Kent, flea market and thrift fans must pull into the side lot of the stalwart, white-washed First Congregational Church on North Main. The Quality Thrift Shop exudes a granny's attic bouquet that whispers, ''Bargains.'' We nosed around the tiny but aptly labeled ''discovery room'' amid good cast-iron pans and a vintage mat touting Authorized Studebaker Service. The shop is charming and cheap and benefits organizations that include the Kent Food Bank, AmeriCares and the New Milford Visiting Nurse Hospice. Cull a closet before you go; donations are always welcome.

Lovers of art and literature can find sustenance at the House of Books, also on North Main. This oasis of well-edited civility holds its own against the book megamerchants with a selection of exquisite and unusual jigsaw puzzles, fine note papers and a glorious children's selection in two back rooms.

A final note to gardeners and fans of botanical art: If you're traveling back south after a day in Kent, make a short but worthwhile detour just off Route 202 to the streamside hamlet of New Preston and a stop at Pergola on East Shore Road. The two-story shop is tiny as a trillium bloom and just as intriguing, chockablock with plants, pots, botanical art and garden tools. At the end of a grisly winter, it smells like hope.


PHOTOS: WALK THIS WAY: The House of Books, on Main Street, is among the shops that attract visitors to Kent. In the town center, William Morrison, standing on the porch above, operates the Morrison Gallery, a linchpin of Litchfield County's art scene. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY WENDY CARLSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.CT1); GALLERY MAGNET: Above, the Van Brunt Gallery on Main Street in Beacon, N.Y. Left, Dia:Beacon, the contemporary art museum that opened six years ago and has helped attract artists and galleries to the city. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSAN STAVA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.CT6)