Over 50 local and regional artists featured in group exhibition
Gallery North celebrates the beginning of summer with a new group exhibit, Inside/Out, featuring the artwork that has emerged from Gallery North programs including the recent Wet Paint Festival and workshops at The Studio at Gallery North. The exhibition will be on view from July 7 to August 7. The community is invited to an opening reception will be held on July 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.
‘Shibori Quilt’ by Andrea Baatz
The Wet Paint Festival and workshops at The Studio at Gallery North both serve as creative catalysts for artists, encouraging experimentation, and engaging with and supporting an inclusive, multigenerational artist community. These programs take place both inside the gallery’s Studio space as well as at locations in the broader community, and they often reflect the impact of the ecological, historical and cultural composition of the region on local artists. Whether the subject of the composition or the natural materials used in its creation, nature plays a role in many of the works in Inside/Out.
Inside/Out includes artists Marceil Kazickas, Nancy Bueti-Randall along with over 50 local and regional plein air artists who participated in the 18th annual Wet Paint Festival at the Sherwood Jayne Farm in Setauket. Artists representing the studio programs include John Benevento, Andrea Baatz and more than 20 other local artists working in a wide range of techniques and media, such as shibori dyed textiles, encaustic and intaglio prints.
As a complement to the exhibition, Joy Cirigliano of Four Harbors Audubon Society will present The Importance of Biodiversity in the Urban Forest on July 16 at 6 p.m..
This exhibition is generously sponsored by Jefferson’s Ferry, bld Architecture, and Suffolk County’s Department of Economic Development and Planning. The exhibition, reception and lecture will be free and open to the public.
Gallery North is located at 90 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-2676 or visit www.gallerynorth.org.
This year's Wet Paint Festival will be held at the Sherwood-Jayne Farm in East Setauket.
Photo courtesy of Preservation Long Island
By Melissa Arnold
Since 2004, Gallery North’s annual Wet Paint Festival has invited artists from far and wide to revel in nature’s beauty. For a week or a weekend, artists enjoy each other’s company and a healthy dose of plein air painting — the tricky, constantly changing art of working outdoors.
This year’s festival, scheduled for June 4 and 5, will be held at the historic and picturesque Sherwood-Jayne Farm on Old Post Road in East Setauket and seeks to build upon past events where visitors can watch the artists work and ask questions about their creative process. There will also be the opportunity to tour the Sherwood-Jayne House, go bird watching, enjoy live music and more.
An artist paints plein air at the Sherwood-Jayne Farm. Photo from Preservation Long Island
“The landscape of the show has changed in a variety of ways over the years, not just in location but in the way it’s structured,” said Ned Puchner, executive director of Gallery North. “During the pandemic, people could paint remotely for a two-week period. Last year, we had a few different locations to choose from. This year, we’re returning to the traditional style of having a specific site where everyone will come together and paint for a weekend, with some additional activities for the public to enjoy.”
The Sherwood-Jayne Farm was originally slated to host the Wet Paint Festival in 2020, and planning for the event was nearly complete when the pandemic shut things down.
“Gallery North reached out to us a few years ago looking to change up the festival from the way it was done in the past,” said Elizabeth Abrams, Assistant Director of Operations and Programs for Preservation Long Island, which cares for the property. “We used to team up with the gallery for an apple festival, and considering we are just down the street from each other, it was natural for us to work together again.”
Preservation Long Island is a multifaceted not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting Long Island’s history and culture. Founded in 1948, their focus is on education, advocacy, and the stewardship of historic buildings and artifacts.
Abrams explained that the Sherwood-Jayne House was built in 1730 as an early colonial, lean-to salt box dwelling. The house and surrounding farmland were cared for by the Jayne family for more than 150 years. In 1908, it was acquired by the founder of Preservation Long Island, Howard Sherwood, who lived in the home and displayed a variety of antiques there.
Throughout the weekend, the Sherwood-Jayne House will be open for tours with Preservation Long Island curator Lauren Brincat. Keep an eye out for the Tallmadge wall panels, and the incredibly beautiful wall mural in the parlor that’s meant to look like wallpaper — they are very rare to see, especially on Long Island, Abrams added.
“The house contains a large portion of Howard Sherwood’s personal antique collection and other bits of history from colonial Long Island. This area had a foundational role in American history — exploring the house and its collections are a unique way to learn more about that important time period,” she said.
There will be plenty of outdoor inspiration for the artists at the festival as well. The property is also home to a variety of outbuildings and trails, gorgeous old-growth walnut trees, an apple orchard, and all kinds of wildlife.
The Four Harbors Audubon Society will lead tours exploring the wildlife and ecology of the area, with a particular focus on local birds. If the barn is open, you might be lucky enough to meet some goats, a few sheep, or an old, sweet white horse named Snowball.
Visitors are free to wander the grounds at their leisure, watch the artists work or ask questions, Puchner said. For those who are feeling shy or not sure what to ask, an artist will offer a guided tour and lead discussions once each day.
“The whole objective of the Wet Paint Festival is to help people understand what goes into the process of creating a painting, and to meet local artists. It’s a great way for someone who has no artistic experience to learn how it all works,” Puchner said.
Nancy Bueti-Randall, pictured in her studio, will join over 40 other artists at this year’s Gallery North Wet Paint Festival. Photo by Heidi Sutton/TBR News Media
Over 40 artists will be participating this weekend including Nancy Bueti-Randall of Stony Brook who began to paint outdoors as a way to recharge while raising her three children. She’s spent more than 20 years creating and showing her work, which runs the gamut from pictorial to abstract, figures and landscapes. Most of the time, though, she’s painting in her garden or other familiar surroundings.
Sometimes, she’ll start a painting with the idea to focus on one thing, but something else in a landscape will catch her eye instead.
“There are a lot of challenges with plein air painting. It’s very fleeting — a landscape is always changing, even from day to day,” Bueti-Randall explained. “You have to be fast and responsive to what’s going on around you. It’s about becoming engaged with the thing you’re painting. I can get overwhelmed by beauty, and I try to capture the essence of what I’m seeing in a process of give and take.”
Marceil Kazickas of Sands Point considers herself an artistic late bloomer. She started drawing and painting to cope with a health crisis, and found that when she was being creative, she wasn’t in pain. Kazickas prefers to work in oil, which she loves for its luscious, sensual properties.
“When you go outside, there’s an overwhelming amount of information to take in — the views are always changing, the clock is running, and you want to get your design done quickly because the light and shadows are constantly evolving,” she explained.
“I’m not as focused on painting exactly what I see … People can get caught up in producing a finished, frameable piece of art, but for me it’s exciting to be outside and come up with whatever I can in the short time I’m out there, even if it’s nothing. It’s about the painting process.”
Puchner hopes that the variety of activities, including a scavenger hunt for kids and live music from the Keenan Paul Zach Trio and Tom Killourhy, will appeal to all kinds of people.
“These new additions will give the public the opportunity to enjoy nature, the arts and history all in one place, and our artists will have a fun new location to experiment and be creative in,” he said.
The 18th Annual Wet Paint Festival will be held June 4 and 5 at the Sherwood-Jayne Farm, 55 Old Post Road, East Setauket from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rain date is June 18 and 19. The event is free and open to the public.
All participating artists will have their festival work on display in an exhibit at Gallery North, 90 North Country Road, Setauket, from July 7 through Aug 7. A free opening reception will be held at the gallery from on July 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.
For more information about the festival or to register to paint, visit www.gallerynorth.org or call 631-751-2676. Learn more about Sherwood-Jayne Farm at www.preservationlongisland.org.
As a reprieve from the gray of winter and the tedious, yet terrifying drudgery of a pandemic, Gallery North’s latest exhibit, Filtered Light, offers a glimpse of brightness and hope. Featuring the work of two local artists, Ty Stroudsburg and Marceil Kazickas, the show, which opens Jan. 14, explores the connection between the realistic beauty and abstract wonder of nature, especially as it exists on Long Island.
Open to the public in person and available for online viewing, the collection consists of mostly oil paintings, a form both artists prefer.
“Oil paint is seductive, sensual, and uplifting,” said Kazickas during a recent interview, adding that the medium enables textures, movement, and depth that can be harder to achieve by other means, such as acrylic paint. Several pastel sketches are also included.
‘It Bears Repeating’ by Marceil Kazickas
These creations are related by certain themes — an appreciation of the outdoors and an examination of light, color, and texture. The exhibit features abstract expressionist pieces and images inspired by the vibrant landscapes of the region.
This venture is the culmination of Gallery North’s commitment to connecting and maintaining relationships with its patrons and the art community during the pandemic, according to Kazickas. Although the pieces in the exhibit were largely made before the pandemic, the art reflects the outside world’s current altered state of reality, merging the tangible with the ephemeral.
“Ty, because she has been working continuously for 50 years, and Marceil, who was very influenced by [late artist] Stan Brodsky, are very influenced by the ideas of abstract expressionism: nature is embodied in the human, who is a reflection of nature and our role within it,” explained Gallery North’s Executive Director Ned Puchner.
Both artists cite nature and color as primary sources of inspiration, but they approach it differently. Stroudsburg’s work is somewhat abstract, but her paintings are based in landscape form and normally have horizon lines.
“My work is still based on plant forms and things I see in the environment. My big focus has always been color. If I put my foot on the brake when I am driving around, it is because something is very colorful and has grabbed my attention. Color is the jumping off point for my canvas,” Stroudsburg said.
‘Coreopsis’ by Ty Stroudsburg
Kazickas’ featured artwork, all abstract, is rooted in vertical sight lines and the beauty found beyond her front door. “I am painting a feeling [but] am inspired by Long Island; there is a vista everywhere … Mother Nature is so spectacular,” said the artist, who resides in Sands Point.
Kazickas starts first with dark hues and then adds bright colors. “Most of my paintings are about dark and light and the magic that happens when they play against each other,” she explained. Having endured chronic pain for many years, Kazickas sees this process as a reflection of the bleakness of constant agony transformed into the relief experiences in creating art. “My paintings are full of color because it’s what I need to see,” she added.
The versatility of the art in the exhibit extends beyond the lights and shadows to the unmistakable texture and expansive scope of the images. Movement on the canvases is expressed through the strong brush strokes. The vibrancy catches the eye, whether in person or on a screen, according to Assistant Curator Kate Schwarting.
Stroudsburg has been exhibiting her art since the 1960s and had an existing relationship with the gallery. She moved from the South Fork of the Island to Southold on the North fork in 1985, drawn to the “non-social atmosphere.” Her work was already being displayed across the island, at institutions like the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington , as well as galleries in New York City and throughout the country.
‘Awakening’ by Marceil Kazickas
Attracted to the art community of Stony Brook and Setauket, Stroudsburg met and connected with former Gallery North Executive Director Colleen Hanson. She facilitated an exhibit of Stroudsburg’s work at the gallery and helped arrange for her art to be on display at Stony Brook University Hospital, where four of her large canvases reside. Stroudsburg networked with galleries and other artists, among them the late Joseph Reboli.
Kazickas has exhibited her work at the Art Guild and at galleries throughout Long Island. She studied at the Roslyn School of Painting and began working as an artist more recently. Her art first caught the attention of Schwarting after she participated in many of the gallery’s ongoing virtual events.
“I met Marceil through some of our virtual programs,” said Schwarting. “We realized that Marceil’s work was a perfect combination with Ty’s work. The art is slightly different, but there is a conversation that happens between the works that makes sense.”
Gallery North, 90 North Country Road, Setauket presents Filtered Light from Jan. 14 through Feb. 25. The exhibit will be open to the public during the gallery’s normal hours, Wednesdays to Saturdays from 11 a.m to 5 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. Social distancing will be observed and masks are mandatory for entry. Additionally the full show will be available online at www.gallerynorth.org. A virtual reception will take place on Saturday, Feb. 6 from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information, please call 631-751-2676 or visit www.gallerynorth.org.
For Stan Brodsky, painting was so much more than just a skill or even a career. It was a language, a love affair, a truly sensual experience. The artist shared those feelings openly with students over the course of a renowned teaching career that spanned more than 50 years.
Several months ago, the Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills began to prepare Stan Brodsky and Friends, a springtime exhibit celebrating Brodsky’s work along with nearly 30 of his dearest friends, many of whom were former students and mentees.
‘Woman in a Car,’ oil/acrylic on canvas by Doug Reina
On March 30, just two weeks before the exhibit’s scheduled opening, Stan Brodsky passed away at the age of 94. He had continued to work and teach until the final weeks of his life, just as he wanted it. Brodsky’s students noted that the World War II veteran tried to retire a few years ago, but he couldn’t stand being away from doing what he loved.
The Art League is moving forward with the show as planned, with the exhibit running from April 13 to 28. A reception on April 14 at 3:30 p.m. will allow the artists and those who loved Brodsky to honor his life and legacy.
Participating artists include Ennid Berger, Susan Bird, Susan Canin, Denise DiGiovanna, Simon Fenster, Stuart Friedman, Peter Galasso, Lenore Ann Hanson, Ginger Balizer-Hendler, Caroline Isacsson, Vincent Joseph, Deborah Katz, Marceil Kazickas, Denise Kramer, Barbara Miller, Catherine Morris, Pamela Long Nolan, Dianne Parker, Alicia R. Peterson, Doug Reina, Fran Roberts, Susan M. Rostan, Ellen Hallie Schiff, Laura Powers-Swiggett, Janice Sztabnik, Lois Walker and Hiroko Yoshida.
Stan has touched so many lives, inspiring them to pursue their passions,” said Susan Peragallo, coordinator and curator of the Art League’s Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery. “The exhibit will be a chance for everyone to celebrate him — the 27 artists in the show are only a small segment of those who were influenced by him over the years.”
A master abstract expressionist, Brodsky studied photojournalism and fine art before receiving a doctorate in art education from Columbia University in 1959. Originally from Greenwich Village, he moved to Huntington in 1965. Most of his teaching years were spent at Long Island University’s C.W. Post Campus in Brookville, and a collection of his notes and sketches from 1951 to 2004 can be found at the Smithsonian Institution.
‘Superficial Information,’ oil on canvas by Marceil Kazickas
Brodsky’s relationship with the Art League began in the late ’90s when he became an instructor. The classes were small in the beginning, with just five students enrolled in 1994, but grew rapidly, and eventually people had to be turned away from lack of space. “It’s not so much that he was popular, but he was inspiring and generous in his critiques, and people really responded to that,” Peragallo said.
Peter Galasso of Setauket remembers that Brodsky could often be found in the same way over the years as students arrived for class — sitting at his desk, usually eating an egg sandwich, always poring over an art history text.
“He had a contagious passion, and was constantly reading and continuing to study,” said Galasso, who began studies under Brodsky 20 years ago, eventually becoming a friend and traveling companion. “He was always looking to travel somewhere new or different. He wanted to be inspired by the local color of a place.”
Susan Rostan of Woodbury remembers entering Brodsky’s classroom for the first time while pursuing a master’s in fine art. Brodsky arranged the students in a circle and asked each one to introduce themselves. When it was her turn, Rostan simply told him, “I’ve heard I’m either going to love you or hate you, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”
‘She Wears Her Heart on Her Sleeve …,’ mixed media by Susan Canin
Many years later, Rostan was sitting in a different class of Brodsky’s, this one at the Art League. But she was stunned by the striking realization that nothing had changed: He still wore the same striped sweaters and paint-splattered jeans. She painted a full-length portrait of him that day that will appear in the exhibit.
“He taught us as much about ourselves as he did about painting,” said Rostan, who is now working on a biography of Brodsky. “He was an unusual teacher in that he approached his students as equals and opened himself up to be vulnerable and form friendships with them, which allowed him to encourage them particularly well.”
Brodsky’s friendship and deep encouragement were beloved by so many of his students, said Doug Reina of Setauket. In fact, some of them continued to take his classes for decades just to spend more time with him.
“Stan had this ability to make you feel special. He was genuinely curious about you, and that means a lot,” Reina said. “In the old days before taking his classes, I would look at a scene and just try to copy it. But through him I learned to paint in a way that also expresses how I feel about the subject and the sensuousness of the paint itself. Stan painted with his own language and created something truly unique for the world.”
Stan Brodsky and Friends will be on view at the Art League of Long Island’s Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery, 107 E. Deer Park Road, Dix Hills. Admission is free. For more information, call 631-462-5400 or visit www.artleagueli.net
