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Art that harks back generationsNorth Fork artist Wendy Prellwitz works in a studio once used by her great-grandfatherBY RACHEL YOUNGSTAFF WRITER
Two years ago, Peconic painter Wendy Prellwitz was in an artistic rut.
Tired of the oil-on-panel water scenes she nor-mally created, she felt herself struggling to map out her next project.
“Every once in a while you hit a moment where you think, okay, I’m not sure what to do next,” she said recently from her studio at High House, the bayfront home her family has owned since 1911. “I just didn’t like the paintings I was doing.”
But one day, as she sat in the Dutch colonial’s kitchen and looked out toward its handsome sun porch, a proverbial light bulb appeared.
“I saw this view and thought, ‘Hmm, I wonder what it would be like to paint interiors,’ ” she recalled.
As time passed, Ms. Prellwitz became increasing-ly entranced by the thought of using a paintbrush to recreate the house’s furnishings, particularly the way the golden October light hit certain objects: a purple throw pillow, an antique lamp in the foyer.
Those paintings — 16 in all — are on view at Cu-tchogue New Suffolk Library through Aug. 31 in Ms. Prellwitz’s latest exhibition, “Conversations.”
“I got really connected to the idea of painting these spaces I’ve known all my life,” she said. “This house is the most consistent place I’ve ever been connected to. It’s the most wonderful place in the world.”
Ms. Prellwitz, a retired architect who teaches
at the Maud Morgan Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Mass., and spends summers in Peconic, has good reason to feel attached to the property. Her great-grandparents, the well-known fi gure and land-scape painters Henry and Edith Mitchill Prellwitz, purchased the house a few years before the start of World War I and built adjoining studios on the property as work spaces. The couple belonged to the Peconic Art Colony, a group of local artists whose members gleaned inspiration
PRELLWITZ | PAGE 7A
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Life & TimesLife & TimesSECTION A | THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2014 | THE SUFFOLK TIMES
Artist Wendy Prellwitz in her Peconic studio, where her great-grandfather, well-known painter Henry Prellwitz, once worked.
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO
Left: ‘Conversation With Myself’
Left: ‘Closed Door’
Below: ‘Conversation’
Below: ‘Full Moon (High House)’
SUFFOLKTIMES .COM | AUGUST 7, 20 14 | 7A
from the North Fork’s natural beauty.During her childhood, Ms. Prellwitz
spent many idyllic summers at High House, which was then owned by her grandparents, Edwin and Eunice. Her family moved several times when she was a child, so the property represent-ed a place of security for her.
“There was a measured pace to the day,” she said, recalling how her fam-ily always ate breakfast and dinner together, in the same rooms, with the same plates. “It’s very comforting to have those rituals.”
Ms. Prellwitz’s great-grandparents died in the 1940s, several years before her birth in 1950. But though their paths never crossed in a physical sense, Ms. Prellwitz, who works in her great-grandfather’s studio, grew up feeling deeply connected to her fore-bears, whose oil paintings decorate that light-fi lled room’s walls.
As she told Art Connoisseur Magazine in a 2013 article about her family, “Spending summers digging around the studios, living in High House with the mundane pieces of their lives, their furniture and tea-cups, Henry and Edith became a living presence for me.”
The pieces that comprise “Con-versations” refl ect this intimate connection. In fact, one work, “Closed Door,” is a cropped version of a painting her great-grandmoth-er did of the house’s back hallway. In another, “Conversation With
Myself,” autumnal light pours into the living room and bounces off a window seat.
Ms. Prellwitz admitted she was initially hesitant to display the paint-ings, since the collection is so per-sonal and unlike the rest of her work. But when the library approached her about doing a show, she felt more at ease about the idea.
“Showing them here, in Cutchogue, the next town over from where my great-grandparents lived, is kind of a nice thing,” she said.
There’s no way of knowing for sure, of course, but Ms. Prellwitz believes her ancestors would heartily approve of her latest work and, of course, be thrilled that their beloved home remains in the family.
“I can’t help but think they would be pleased,” she said. “I almost think of the house as a being. It has its own soul.”
PRELLWITZ… CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO
Ms. Prellwitz’s great-grandparents purchased this Dutch Colonial, nicknamed ‘High House,’ in Peconic in 1911.
Quinn Marie Corwin—Born July 7, 2014, at Southampton Hospital, to Jasmine and Blake Corwin of Aque-bogue, a daughter, Quinn Marie Cor-win. Ms. Corwin is a former Mattituck resident.
Nora Ocker—Born Feb. 14, 2014, at Southampton Hospital to Lauren and Kristopher Ocker of Mattituck, a daughter, Nora Ocker. Ms. Ocker is a former Southold resident.
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