Looking out from Indian Neck in Peconic, over the ever-shifting expanse of the Peconic Bay, the seascape hasn’t changed much since the painters of the Peconic Art Colony first set up shop here.
This magical space will soon play host to artists honing their skills at printmaking in the studio of Wendy Prellwitz, great-granddaughter to Peconic School artists Edith and Henry Prellwitz, who built the studio more than a century ago.
Above: Painter and printmaker Wendy Prellwitz in her Peconic studio, which had belonged to her great-grandparents. |. photo courtesy Wendy Prellwitz
Ms. Prellwitz’s studio will be the site of two workshops in June, part of a new partnership with North Fork Contemporary, a non-profit founded in 2023 to explore innovative programming and synergies between arts organizations here.
Ms. Prellwitz, an oil painter and printmaker who grew up visiting her grandparents in Peconic, is in love with the property and its legacy in North Fork history — she worked to get the house and studio landmarked by Southold Town, and is currently working to get it registered on the National Register of Historic Places.
She first met North Fork Contemporary founder Sean Elwood about two years ago, not long after she acquired an etching press from legendary South Fork printmaker Dan Weldon. They agreed a collaboration would be great for the North Fork arts community.
Mr. Elwood has since died, but Ms. Prellwitz recently asked North Fork Contemporary’s current Co-Director, Cliff Baldwin, to follow through with these collaborations.
“I have an interest in sharing that art studio with the community,” said Ms. Prellwitz. “He [Sean Elwood] visited the studio a couple times, but sadly, he’s died…. But that vision is being realized this summer. It’s a maidan voyage.”
“This is such an historic North Fork location for us,” said Mr. Baldwin. “It’s really art history on the North Fork. This studio is right on the water — you open the door and you’re overlooking the bay. She’s got a terrific printing press there, and the whole thing just seemed like a perfect fit.”
The sessions will accommodate just five people — Ms. Prellwitz is leading the first workshop, which is nearly full, on Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15. She’ll be focusing on monotypes and woodcuts.
Lorena Salcedo will lead the second workshop, on Saturday and Sunday, June 28 and 29, where she will be focusing on intaglio printmaking techniques.
Each workshop costs $450, which includes supplies and lunch. Prospective attendees can register at northforkcontemporary.org.
Ms. Prellwitz is excited to be sharing the press with the community.
“I had been looking around for used presses, because they last forever, and most of the ones I had found were too big or too heavy,” she said. “And Dan had been using this one, which is small and lighter weight. So it was kind of perfect. And it’s a really excellent press.”
“Print making is a particular thing,” she added. “You have to be open-minded and willing to experiment with the process.… It’s a lot about process. Once somebody has some understanding about some of the methods, and that’s what this workshop is about, then you can free up the creative juices and be surprised by the process. We can work with anybody who’s has had some form of artistic expression, somewhere, somehow. Printmaking is kind of a democratic sort of thing.”
Ms. Salcedo, a professor of Practice, Drawing and Printmaking at Stony Brook University, worked for 14 years at the legendary Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE) printmakers in Bay Shore.
“She’s just really an incredible technician and just a terrific resource for print making,” said Mr. Baldwin of Ms. Salcedo. “She has these water-based inks called Akua inks, so she’s not getting rid of any toxic stuff, in any way. It’s a very green operation.”
Way back in 1911, artists Edith and Henry Prellwitz were looking to move their studios out of the hubbub of New York City when they fell in love with a tall, narrow Dutch colonial house, originally built in 1814, that was falling into disrepair in Aquebogue. They disassembled the building and had it moved to Peconic, where they also built a separate building containing two large art studios. Both the house and the studios were landmarked by Southold Town in the fall of 2023.
“It was built facing true north, with north-facing skylights as an artist of that era would have wanted,” said Ms. Prellwitz of the studio. “They were both professional artists, so it was important for them to have good working space.”
“So many things change over time, and this is a bit like a place where time stood still, because nothing huge has been changed about the whole property,” she added. “It’s very much the way it was in 1911 — how an artist would have worked and what their studio was like then.”
Ms. Prellwitz is scheduled in June to meet with a New York State committee which recommends properties for federal recognition on the National Register of Historic Places.
“This has taken a long time, and I had to be approved to go before the state committee,” she said. “I don’t know how long it takes, but it’s going to be sooner than later that I’ll know whether the place is going to be on the National Register, which is kind of amazing and wonderful.”
Ms. Prellwitz says she hopes to be able to invite North Fork artists to build a community around the studio, much as her great-grandparents did more than a century ago.
“The place means everything to me,” she said. “It’s a true source for me, both visually and emotionally. I have a lot of childhood memories, because I spent every summer with my family, particularly my grandparents, in the house. Who doesn’t want to be a kid with their grandparents? And then if you add the beach and the water and a beautiful place, it made a big impression on me.”
“There’s something that touches my heart about it that is sort of an indescribable thing, but it’s an inspiration — my artwork is primarily based on watery imagery, and I grew up with it,” she said. “I feel like it’s a gift to be able to be there, that my family kept the house and that I’m able to steward it and help steer it to the future. I want to share the place and I want to preserve it.”
For more information on these workshops and upcoming North Fork Contemporary events, visit northforkcontemporary.org.
— BHY
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