Mollie Eckelberry of Muttontown, NY, author and illustrator, draws almost exclusively animals. She draws some animals because their expressions or poses strike her interest, some as illustrations to her books. Mollie avoids anthropomorphism, her portrayals reflect years of discovery, first-hand experience, and keen observation.
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Mollie's love of the animal world started rather dangerously at a tender age of three: "... a seventeen-hand horse named Buster careened rider-less down a narrow farm path straight toward ... me. ... I never moved - just stood there in awe of this wondrous creature that somehow managed not to trample me into hamburger as he went by. ... Horses were never to be far from my mind from that moment to this. I solemnly crayoned red dots on every one of my dolls, told my mother they had measles and that I couldn't play with them any more and I didn't. I made little stables out of shoeboxes, and when my parents gave up on the dolls and gave me toy horses, I bandaged their legs with adhesive tape and made little halters and bridles our of thread and saddles out of bits of cloth."
An avid equestrienne and nature lover, she retained the childlike awe for the smart, amazing creatures surrounding her. She devotes a good portion of her day to the animals in her care.
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Her creative pursuits get their fair share of attention, as well. Mollie draws almost every day, always with Mozart's music in the background. The studio is her sanctuary where time plays tricks, it usually passes too fast.
Mollie's mother, Louise Stark Wolf Arnold, an oil, pastel, and watercolor painter, encouraged her young children to experiment with drawing on butcher's paper available by the roll in her studio. Mollie covered miles of that paper with stick horses, eventually progressing to more advanced depictions. In time Mollie signed up for live drawing and anatomy sessions at Art Students League of New York where she took classes with Bill Barnet, Robert Beverly Hale, and Louis Bosa, among others. She was advised to follow her instincts and concentrate her work on things she loved most, the animals. Mollie's brother, Robert Warbrick Stark Jr., became a renown luminist painter of Nantucket landscapes and marines. Until this day Mollie seeks his advice and critique.
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Mollie published four books: 'Vest Pocket Farm' from which the above quote was taken - an equestrian memoir full of captivating stories in her own vivid language, 'The Foxes of Kirby Hill' - an eulogy to the beloved Kirby Hill estate where she rode surrounded by the wild life of the area, 'Willa' - part introduction to the seeing guide dogs, part love affair with her dog Willa, and 'The Cat Burglar of Castor Bay' - a mystery book for children with the cat at the center stage.
She is invited to read the last three books at schools or nurseries. She appreciates when children laugh at the right places, but, even more so when they grasp her message of the animal care, appreciation for nature, and importance of land conservation.
Think Long Island First carries her interesting books, her very popular notecards and paper weights.
With great sadness we inform you of the sudden passing of our friend and colleague, Mike Denaro.
Many of you have met Mike at the Introduction to Wood Carving or the Artist Appreciation Day events and remember him as a talented wood carver with a lively personality and a great sense of humor. Mike considered himself a folk artist and pursued various crafts to a great success.
Mike granted us an interview, Mike Denaro, wood carver, and allowed us to film him a few weeks back.
Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to Mike's family.
Services will be held at Mother Teresa Tribute Center at 123 Ronkonkoma Avenue, Lake Ronkonkoma, NY, on Thursday, April 21st at 12 noon.
Sherry Phelps, quilter from Glen Cove, is proud to follow in the path of generations of women before her. She believes that the utility of a quilt is as important as its beauty. She hopes the quilts she makes will brighten a day. And she also hopes the quilts will go along on a picnic, and dry off a wet dog, and tag along with a toddler, and give a hug, and be used.
As far back as Sherry can remember there were homemade quilts around her house. Her grandmother was an accomplished quilter whose work was done entirely by hand. Her grandmother’s depression quilts were made from flour sacks and scrap fabrics, pieced by individuals and then quilted by sisters and neighbors joining together to create an item of utility and beauty. They were made of cotton, used for many years, washed often, and remain vibrant to this day.
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Sherry makes traditional quilts under the whimsical name Nana’s Quilted Hugs. Her inspiration comes from fabric colors and print combinations as well as traditional quilt block designs. She uses only cotton materials, from top pieced fabrics and muslin backing to unbleached batting. She uses only cotton thread, regardless of its tricky nature. She binds the finished quilt by hand. All quilts are machine washable and dryable.
For the uninitiated, there is a price one pays for working with cotton. It absorbs oil from the hands and makes them very dry. A good healing lotion is a must. Cotton dust released when preparing fabric is another occupational hazard and must be well controlled.
Sherry grew up in the Rocky Mountain west. She taught middle school English and history in Wyoming for 20 years. Her last teaching assignment was in southern China teaching English to international students. She took every opportunity to explore Asia, including trips to Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and X’ian. She eventually settled on Long Island to be near her daughter and her family.
If necessity is the mother of all inventions, an important family event may uncover an artist in you. About 10 years ago Jane Pearlson's daughter was getting married. To celebrate this momentous occasion the closest family members and friends were asked to contribute a square each with either a poem, memory, kind wishes, etc. Jane incorporated the squares into a chuppah, a canopy hanging over a couple during a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony. And thus a quilter was born.
Jane was only partially prepared for this discovery. There were no quilters in her family - her mother knitted angora sweaters, grandmother crocheted. Jane had acquired basic sewing skills in home economics classes, made some clothes for her daughter and herself, tried her hand at needlepoint, macramé, stone sculpture. After completing her first chuppah she delved into quilt making with a passion - she took classes, workshops, attended shows, joined art and craft guilds.
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Her quilts are non-traditional, have eclectic themes frequently inspired by nature, most are intended for wall hanging. Jane likes making pieces which expand her technique, explore patterns and color combinations. She gravitates toward earthy or bright tones and likes to combine remote colors. She uses a sewing machine both for piecing and for quilting; banding and appliqué - flowers, leaves, beads, are sewn by hand. Her stitching is decorative, sometimes done with multicolor or metallic threads. Jane uses mostly cotton, batiks are her favorite, but will also use silk or upholstery fabrics for texture if a piece calls for it. She currently experiments with 3 dimensional objects that can be attached to a quilt. Painting on fabric is another area beckoning her interests.
She particularly enjoys making custom quilts which display family history or family tree, immortalize a lost loved one, commemorate an important event - birth, graduation, wedding. Jane may include photos printed on fabric, cherished pieces of clothing - baby clothes, ties, shirts, or other significant items provided for that purpose by the customers.
Jane Pearlson's website Quilts of Distinction provides additional information about the artist and more photos of her work.
Painter Susie Gách Peelle, granddaughter of Hungarian sculptor Steven Gach (Gách István) and daughter of Hungarian/American sculptor/painter George Gach (Gách György) might have been born with a paint brush in her hand. She was surrounded by artistic work ever since she could remember. She was drawing at 5, painting at 12. She posed for her father, observed his lessons, demos, and outdoor classes. She was commissioned to do 20x24 oil portraits of her schoolmates while still in high school.
Photo by Susie Gách Peelle
Though her father was an academically trained artist he did not insist on a strict early training for his daughter. Susie was allowed to observe, experiment, and follow her own developmental path. She was encouraged to study works of great masters, she is still doing it today. In due course, Susie obtained her BA from C.W. Post, NY, and then her MFA from Instituto Allende/Universidad de Guanajuato in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Throughout her career she attended various classes in search of techniques and forms of expression.
Photo by Susie Gách Peelle
Susie's good fortune was that she started drawing so early and appreciated the importance of it. Drawing is a basis of every work in every medium, it allows the pieces to retain a sense of proportion and perspective. Susie no longer has to think and measure distances much, most of her drawing comes naturally. This is a result of an innate talent and a constant practice.
Susie works almost every day. Her work time is very intense, she often paints alla prima where a great discipline is required in the name of freshness. I had the pleasure to witness an alla prima oil painting demo by Susie, she completed a painting in about 40 minutes. She worked uninterrupted, started by drawing color and shade outline, then covered the canvas with quick, decided, measured brush strokes, from dark to light. Susie likes the speed and the intensity, she is known to have drawn 42 pencil portrait sketches in 2 hours at a children's party. Her quick strokes came in handy when she was engaged as a courtroom illustrator by one of the major tv stations.
Photo by Susie Gách Peelle
Her subjects vary greatly. Susie frequently explores a theme and paints or draws similar scenes in different media, in varied sizes and tonal variations. She executes portraits, nudes, landscapes, beach scenes, architecture, street scenes, animals, teddy bears, flowers, still lifes, paintings on silk and ceramics, book illustrations, and greeting cards. She works in oil, acrylic, pastel, lead, conté, ink, gouache, graphics, and mosaic.
Susie has great fun with framing as a significant part of the overall presentation. Her studio is full of frames ready for a perfect match. She also uses custom framing as the sizes of her pieces are frequently non-standard.
Photos by Susie Gách Peelle
Photo by Susie Gách Peelle
Susie's work graced the walls of galleries in US and overseas. She entertained numerous portrait commissions of luminaries of art, commerce, politics, and academia. Her portrait of Grace Bumbry, great American soprano, was picked by the singer herself from among the works of students of Oskar Kokoschka School of Seeing in Salzburg, Austria, which Susie was attending at the time. Once, while painting en plein air she was approached by a passerby who bought the painting, a beach scene, on the spot and commissioned a matching winter scene.
Susie Gach Peelle was born in Budapest, Hungary, spent 5 years of her early childhood in Lebanon before her parents moved to US, eventually settling on Long Island. Susie and her husband live in Locust Valley. The youngest of the couple's four sons, Evan, inherited the artistic talent, thus extending the creative line to the fourth generation.
Susie enjoys traveling. No matter what destintation, she takes her work with her wherever she goes. She frequently teaches on cruises. She is also an active teacher while in New York; she gives private lessons and teaches at the Art League of Long Island. Susie can be contacted at 1.516.676.7011.
Please see Susie introduce her work at her studio.
The dazzling lampwork beads by Gea Hines, artist bead maker, look like pure color caught in glass. By fire.
Lampwork bead making is an ancient art. There is something magical in the idea of taking solid glass, firing it to a liquid, malleable state, and transforming it into an artistic object.
Gea Hines started her adventure in bead making in a rather mundane way. A stay-at-home mom, she was looking for something she could do at home to occupy her time and supplement the family income. Jewelry was her first choice, then she realized that instead of buying ready made beads she could create her own. Her first bead was just a blob of glass, a far cry from what she had imagined. Gea did not give up; she practiced and practiced until she developed solid skills. She continued learning about glass and its properties. She experimented with tools and eventually set up a workshop in her basement/den where she can work in comfort while watching over the activities of her growing children.
Gea, born and raised in Netherlands, does not come from an artistic family. She found she enjoyed art classes in high school. Somewhat against the advice of her parents she attended a fashion design school in Amsterdam. Then, occasional painting or drawing excepted, her artistic interests took a rest; she has not seriously exercised her creative powers until she picked up bead making.
Now she enjoys the fulfillment which comes from working with colors (blue is her favorite) and shapes. The art is precise and the artist must stay focused, playing with a torch is a dangerous employment after all. Gea's concentration is greatly helped by the fact that she also happens to be a yoga teacher.
Think Long Island First is very happy to carry her beads, bracelets, and earrings. Her hand made beads match Pandora bracelets. Gea has her own website under her company name Dinky Beads, she shows her work at fairs and craft shows. She will be present at the Long Island Bead Festival on April 10th, at Marriott Islandia.
George William Fisher - bird watcher, poet, historian, civil servant, volunteer, photographer, collector, music lover. The list is hardly complete, George is quite a Renaissance man. We have already written about George's involvement in the Nassau County Photo Archives. In this article we will concentrate on his activities revolving around collecting and cataloging historical Long Island bottles.
Throughout the years George built two distinct collections: one of Long Island medicine bottles dated c. 1830-1920 and another of Long Island beverage bottles dated 1840-1970.
George first started collecting Long Island bottles of any kind, but was always drawn to Art Deco soda bottles. Then his interests expanded to earlier years. Through trades, purchases (eBay opened new horizons for bottle collectors), or donations George managed to enlarge his collection and to focus it on the two areas listed above.
George's medicine bottle collection is a completely unique undertaking. It is worth mentioning here that George collects embossed medicine bottles as opposed to generic medicine bottles where only a (paper) label distinguished a product of one pharmacy from another. Of the 175 known Long Island medicine bottles roughly 80% are in George's possession, including nearly all known pontil bottles. George published a book 'Long Island Medicine Bottles: Patent Medicines, Bitters, Sarsaparillas, Hair Products & Citrates' on the subject.
Photo by George Fisher
George's beverage bottle collection is remarkable for its breadth. Most collectors were originally not interested in bottles past 1900. Since George started with Art Deco bottles he covered later years and then expanded the collection to include bottles from 1840 - 1970. The beverage collection contains about 1,000 objects which he successively donates to the Nassau County Museum Division. About half of his collection is now under the county's care.
George is not only a collector, he is also involved in the cataloging and dissemination of knowledge in the area. Together with Donald H. Weinhardt he is an author of the authoritative compendium 'A Historical Guide to Long Island: Soda, Beer & Mineral Water Bottles & Bottling Companies 1840-1970'. The 4th Edition of the guide was just released in an electronic version. With its 800 pages and 500 photographs it is a true font of information.
Tracing of bottles and their history frequently feels like a detective work, one has to ferret information in various historical sources. George cross references advertisements, newspaper articles, business directories and documents to narrow down the operating dates of the 806 geographic Long Island (including current Brooklyn and Queens) bottling companies which marketed nearly 3,000 various beverage bottles, and over the years employed thousand of Long Islanders. His goal is to collect bottles from all 130 or so Long Island communities as almost each one had at least one bottling facility. In addition, many large hotels bottled soda, beer, and mineral water for their guests to take on the road or to pack into a picnic basket.
The beverage collection reflects changes in tastes and technological advancements from first crude, low production hand blown pontiled bottles and bottles made in snap molds to standardized bottles mass produced using the Automatic Bottle Machine. The transformation of bottling was marked by changes to the shape of bottles, method of glass production, color and chemical contents of glass, type of enclosure, and marketing approach.
Let us present some of the bottles from George's collection. Please see the excerpts from 'A Historical Guide to Long Island: Soda, Beer & Mineral Water Bottles & Bottling Companies 1840-1970' with the catalog descriptions of the first two bottles listed below.
A beautiful Deer Park L.I. pontil bottle.
There are 17 recorded remaining bottles.
Did not appear in auctions in over 10 years.
Photo by George Fisher
L.S. Sammis, Hempstead L.I..
Scarce as teal color was not that frequently used at the times.
Photo by George Fisher
Hutchinson style bottle from L.O. Wilson, Oyster Bay.
Seal was kept wet by storing bottles upside down. Bottle was opened by pushing the top inside.
Outlawed as unhygienic by 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.
Photo by George Fisher
George is available for lectures and appraisals. Please contact him directly at 516.375.9410 to make arrangements or to purchase any of his publications.
