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Arts & Entertainment

Springsteel Moves in on Greenport Village Art Scene

Bernard Springsteel opened his Gallery at 419 Main Street this month, filling up an empty storefront with art work.

Greenport's gallery scene got a bit bigger in November when sculptor and watercolorist Bernard Herbert Springsteel opened his The Springsteel Gallery at 419 Main Street in Greenport.

Springsteel, the former art director for magazines such as McCall's and Good Housekeeping, kicked open the doors with a packed opening night reception that attracted art lovers and patrons from New York City, the Hamptons and the North Fork who came to see a small but illuminating sample of the artist's work culled from a collection that includes both watercolors and sculpture done over the course of a half a century.

Over the years, Springsteel, 80, has painted scenes from the Hudson Valley and Brooklyn as well as on the East End. Springsteel has exhibited widely and sold his work steadily in galleries throughout his career. But this latest venture has given him the opportunity to sell his work directly without a middleman taking a percentage of his sales as is customary in most galleries.

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In addition to showing and selling his own work, Springsteel plans to feature a guest exhibitor each month devoting a wall to a series of rotating artists, starting with Keith Mantell in November. Mantell works in oil and draws inspiration from the rural character of the East End's barns, fields and beaches.

The gallery opening coincided with the unveiling of Springsteel's new website, www.Springsteel.com.

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Springsteel plans to participate in the gallery stroll that takes place on the third Saturday of each month during the fall and winter. The stroll affords art lovers the chance to visit several galleries — about a dozen of which have popped up during the past decade in the village — all within walking distance of each other from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"My wife is responsible for this gallery," Springsteel said, referring to his second wife Marcia Pollak. "She said to take some money out of our account and open up a place."

Springsteel had been eyeing locations for a while before returning to the space he now rents.

"I even got them to come down on the rent," the artist said.

Springsteel began his career as a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn during the 1950's, where his formal education focused on graphic design. He taught himself to paint with watercolors as a young man when he went to Nantucket on a vacation years ago.

"I sat on the curb with my paint and my brushes," Springsteel recalled in his book titled "A Life in Art."

The volume, self-published by Springsteel in 2004, provides the reader with a brief retrospective of the artist's work over the years. It is also for sale at the his gallery.

Originally hailing from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., Springsteel came to the North Fork 40 years ago with his first wife and three children. The family spent summers on Shelter Island, where Springsteel transported his sailboat to the local waters each season. One of his great pleasures was sailing around the island — an experience that provided him with a nearly endless source of material for his painting, he said.

Enamored of the area, Springsteel bought a house on Shelter Island along with his former college roommate in 1970 after spending a weekend at the Chequit Inn. The owner wanted $16,000 for the house located in Shelter Island Heights. Springsteel's friend and co-owner in the property offered $8,000 for the house. To their surprise, the owners' accepted.

A few years later, Springsteel bailed on the summer house, returning to the East End sporadically over the years. Springsteel and Pollak found themselves heading to the North Fork again after years of absence in the wake of 9/11. The couple had planned a trip to Egypt. The trip sponsored by National Geographic was cancelled due to the volatile political situation. Friends offered the use of their house on Carpenter Street in Greenport as a substitute vacation destination to make up for the canceled trip, and Springsteel fell in love with the North Fork all over again. The couple bought a house in Southold in 2001.

Springsteel paints daily in a third floor attic studio he calls his garret.

"I'm very fortunate to have the luxury to paint full-time after a long career," he said reflecting on the last 20 years. "I should have opened the Gallery sooner."

The Springsteel Gallery is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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