REFLECTING NATURE By John O’Hern
This home in the East End of Long Island, New York, features art focused on the surrounding environs.
When our collector was looking for a country home, she went to the East End of Long Island where she rented a house owned by James McMullen. McMullen designed the posters for Lincoln Center including shows such as My Fair Lady, Carousel, The King and I and South Pacific. There is now a permanent exhibition of his posters in the lobby of the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.
Fortunately, for the collector, many of McMullen’s original works were in the house when she lived there. Spring Salt Marsh particularly attracted her because it depicted the local landscape and the animals she saw there every day. Years later, when she bought her own home, she was able to acquire the painting for her collection.
Her first home was in the arts and crafts style, and she decorated and collected accordingly, purchasing Stickley furniture and a group of ceramic plaques with a vellum glaze by artists at the Rookwood Pottery Company. Two of them grace the kitchen in her new condominium, accompanied by an arts and crafts vase she purchased in England.
“I was hesitant, at first, about the art I was collecting,” she admits, “even though I minored in art history at university. Gradually, as the years passed and I bought work for the house, I became more confident.” Each piece she purchases has a special meaning for her whether it is of Moroccan slippers or the local landscape.
She saw Claudio Bravo’s paintings at Marlborough Gallery on a visit there with her friend, Sag Harbor art dealer Laura Grenning. “Laura has a good eye,” she explains. “I wouldn’t have known about many of the artists whose work I bought without her.” The collector purchased Bravo’s Babuchas Rojas y Lila to hang in her bedroom. “The slippers are rendered so beautifully and the light highlights them