Our collector, who has decided to remain anonymous, grew up on Long Island with her two older sisters and art collecting parents in a home filled with art and Scandinavian modern furniture. “My parents would go to community art fairs and local galleries when they were on trips,” she says. “They would buy something. I find myself doing the same thing. I could remember where I bought a painting or sculpture and it would remind me of that adventure.”Above the cabinet in the living room is Steve Alpert’s Between Heaven and Earth, 2021, oil on linen. The wooden mushrooms are from a florist’s shop in New York City. Between the doorways is Lauren McKenzie’s A Triplets—Three, commissioned in 2020. In the hallway are paintings in enamel with quotations from famous people around the edge.

Her new home in Connecticut had the good bones of bright and airy Danish/Japanese design. She has added on and clarified the openness, furnishing it with contemporary, clean-lined furniture with a lot of natural wood. Primarily, however, she has acquired a stunning collection of contemporary realist art which she began buying while the house was under contract. She had to wait 5 months to take possession, which gave her plenty of time to shop art and furniture. “I could buy abstract art,” she explains, “but it would have to have the color and balance that I look for in my representational art. My apartment in New York has a different look because I lived in London for 17 years and our home was Victorian. I have more period pieces in New York. When I moved out here, I didn’t want to bring anything from the city or to buy anything with an urban look. I wanted this to look like Connecticut.”From left: Carol O’Malia, True Blue, oil on panel, 36 x 54”. Courtesy Julie Nester Gallery, Park City, Utah.  At the top on the left is Trish Coonrod’s Homegrown Figs, 2021, oil on canvas on birch panel. Beneath it are (l. to r.) Larry Preston’s Artichokes, 2021, oil on panel and Dandelions in a Jar, 2021, oil on panel. On the right is Richard Murdock’s Center of the World, 2021, oil on copper.

I commented on the number of pieces in her collection that incorporate reflections notably in paintings of silverware in paintings by Leslie Lewis Sigler but also in still lifes and landscapes throughout her home. She replied, “Reflections make it more real. I often wonder how they did that and look closely to see what I can find in the reflections.”

She relies on galleries to recommend work to her but has also bought online through sites such as 1stDibs where she bought one of her favorite paintings, Carol O’Malia’s True Blue, 2019, from the Julie Nester Gallery in Park City, Utah. The painting of a pile of pillows reminds her of the comfort of home.Sydney Bella Sparrow’s The Nature of Things, 2020, oil on linen, is on the left and Trish Coonrod’s Heirloom Tomatoes, 2021, is on the right.

“My parents knew Steve Diamant at Arcadia Contemporary in New York,” she relates. “They adored him and he cherished them.” Her father was a lawyer and her mother, who had been a teacher, began baking later in life and became the baker to the stars. “Bon Appétit” called her “the Leonardo da Vinci of wedding cakes.”In the kitchen are (top to bottom) Leslie Lewis Sigler’s The Company, 2021, oil on panel and The Surrogate, 2021, oil on canvas. In the background is Alexander Titorenkov’s Reflections, 2020, oil on canvas.

About 15 years ago, the collector and a group of other women went to Charleston, South Carolina, for a writing seminar. While there, she went into Principle Gallery, met the director Frank Conrad Russen, and purchased two small paintings. Two weeks later she contacted him to purchase another painting she saw from the gallery. “When I started to look for work for the new house, I contacted Frank. He knows what I like and always introduces me to new work.”Above the dresser is Ardem Rogowoi’s Golden Patches, 2020, oil on canvas. The wooden vases are by Steven Holm-Hansen Woodturning. In the background are Jacob Pfeiffer’s Stones and Sticks, 2021, pencil on mounted paper with epoxy resin.

Dana Zaltman’s Water Bucket, 2019, oil on canvas, hangs on the left and on the right are Leslie Lewis Sigler’s 2022 oils on panel (l. to r.) Silver Pair 13: The Cynic and the Sir and Silver Pair 12: The Glutton and the Gourmand.

George Billis Gallery is in Westport, Connecticut, and George has also advised her on purchases. “They all educate me by the art they carry,” she says. “They feed my addiction to art. When I was looking for a large painting for a gym room in my basement, I told George what I wanted. He thought about it and suggested that another piece would work better. It does!”

Galleries and the internet are not her only sources of “finds.” She had seen large, carved, very expensive wooden mushrooms in an antique shop in Sag Harbor, New York, and when she saw similar carvings in a florist’s display in the city, she asked the owner to please let her buy them. She points out that the mushrooms are meticulously made and realistic with even the gills under their caps carefully carved. “They represent things of beauty in nature,” she explains.On the left is Gilbert Gorski’s Pianissimo, 2021, oil on linen. In the hallway are (l. to r.) David Pilgrim’s Storms Passing in Summer, 2013, oil on canvas and Cindy Rizza’s Altar II, commissioned in 2022, oil on linenComplementing the wood furniture are vases by Steven Holm-Hansen Woodturning in Easton, Connecticut. “Steven has a career in accounting,” the collector relates, “but he always enjoyed working with wood. He turns bowls and vases and wooden finials and people bring him wood with interesting grain. I buy his bowls for gifts for special friends.”

Several pieces come from her mother such as the carved fish on her dining room table. She had prepared a ground floor room for her mother in her new home, but she passed away last November before she could settle in. The collection is also displayed in that room and other guest rooms. “Those are rooms I don’t go into frequently,” she says, “but when I do, I become reacquainted with the art. It’s like visiting a gallery.”Above the dresser is Ardem Rogowoi’s Golden Patches, 2020, oil on canvas. The wooden vases are by Steven Holm-Hansen Woodturning. In the background are Jacob Pfeiffer’s Stones and Sticks, 2021, pencil on mounted paper with epoxy resin.

When she finds a piece that she likes and learns that it’s been sold, she will sometimes commission the artist to paint something similar. She commissioned In the Spirit of Bond from Michele Piorier-Mozzone through Sorelle Gallery, also in Westport. “I told Michele I wanted the figures mostly submerged,” she explains, “but left the positioning and color up to her.” She also commissioned the Alter II from Cindy Rizza through the George Billis Gallery. “Cindy let me pick the colors, fabrics and quilts on the chair so it could balance with the other paintings nearby. That is the benefit of commissioning art.”From left: Above the bed is Yuliya Martynova’s Migration/Nimbus Deep, 2020, oil on canvas. Above the table is Susan Kinsella’s Little Barn on the Prairie, 2021, acrylic on canvas. Above the cabinet is John Smith/Agent X’s digital print One Queen (4), 2020.  On the door is Jacob Pfeiffer’s pencil on mounted paper with epoxy resin, Sticks, 2021. To the right of the doorway is Richard Murdock’s Melting Snow, 2021, oil on copper. On the adjoining wall (t. to b., l. to r.) are Murdock’s Mekah, 2020, oil on copper, Anna Toberman’s Gift of Discernment, 2021, oil on linen on board and Abigail Albano-Payton’s The Big Chop, 2021, oil, construction paper, charcoal on wood. The red vase is African. The wooden vases are by Steven Holm-Hansen Woodturning.“I don’t often meet the artists,” she says, “but when I do I tell them how their work gives me great joy. They have helped me turn a house into a home. People seldom do that when they purchase something or praise people for good service or good work. We are so quick to criticize and overlook commending for good performance.” —

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