'Close to Home: The Art of Louise Gnia Brett'





	The artist at work in her Port Jefferson studio. Photo by John Griffin (click for larger version)

March 11, 2009 | 03:24 PM
"It all started back in the second grade at the Setauket School," said renowned local artist Louise Gnia Brett, "when I went up to the easel, painted a black coach pulled by four horses, felt such tremendous satisfaction and sensed that art would become an important part of my life."

The largest exhibit of Brett's work ever assembled, over 80 pen and ink drawings, pastels, sketches and oil paintings, is on display at the Port Jefferson Village Center through March 31.

The show, "Close to Home," aptly named because of Brett's gift for capturing the local scene, features her genre paintings of Port Jefferson, Belle Terre, Setauket, Stony Brook, Miller Place, Port Jefferson Station, Mount Sinai and Old Field. The exhibit also includes Brett's pictures of Sound Beach, Riverhead, New Suffolk, Calverton, Bridgehampton, Watermill and Greenport.

Other than 32 days of portrait lessons at the former Robert Zoeller studio in Mount Sinai, Brett has had no specialized training in art. Painting and drawing have always come naturally to her, much like another of Port Jefferson's great artists, William M. Davis (1829-1920).

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Particularly skilled in freezing the Suffolk County landscape for posterity, Brett's realistic style of painting depicts the beauty of Stony Brook's "Gamecock Cottage," character of Miller Place's "Academy," serenity of Mount Sinai's "Congregational Church," and excitement of "Canoeing on the Peconic River."

Finding inspiration in vintage photographs and postcards, Brett also creates historically accurate compositions of bygone places such as the "Hotel Echo, Main Street, Port Jefferson Station"; "Pergola, Cliff Road, Belle Terre"; and "Flour Mill, West Broadway, Port Jefferson."

Brett and her four siblings grew up in Old Field where their Polish immigrant parents worked on an estate. Her father died when she was 3 years old and the family moved to Reeves Road in Port Jefferson when she was 10.

Brett first attended the Setauket School and then Infant Jesus School in Port Jefferson, where Sr. Gertrude encouraged her to use her artistic abilities. At Port Jefferson High School, Brett was a member of the Art Club. Its advisor, Alice Ludwick, was also Brett's beloved art teacher.

While a student, Brett worked part-time as a "soda jerk" at Caggiano's Drugstore on Main Street in upper Port Jefferson, whiling away the hours by sketching some of the customers. She painted a portrait of pharmacist Nick Caggiano, who was so impressed with Brett's talent that he bought her a prized paint set.

In later years, Brett was employed at the Wilson Lace Mill in Port Jefferson Station, Delano Studios in Setauket and Mel Bryant Printing in Port Jefferson, but she still painted at home, exhibited her work at street fairs and sold her art to private collectors, including some who bought on commission.

"Louise's work is everywhere," explained Brett's friend Audrey Prochilo, "not just on canvas." The prolific and ubiquitous Brett has painted scenes on sleighs, tablecloths, glass, walls, floats, holiday ornaments, stage sets, breadboards and rocks. Then there are the Christmas cards, postcards and note cards, as well as several Dickens Festival posters. She has also designed altars, drawn the covers for church bulletins and restored religious statues.

Louise Brett and her husband, Nick, have been married for 52 years. They have five adult children, 15 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson as part of their "Community, Culture and Creativity" series of art and photography shows.

The Port Jefferson Village Center is located at 101A East Broadway and is open seven days a week, except holidays, from 9 am to 9 pm. Admission is free. Call 802-2165 for additional information.

Visit www.gpjac.org/visualarts.html

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