SPOTLIGHT ON ARTISTS: OLIVE REICH

Olive Reich, pictured here in her Heights studio, is inspired by everything surrounding her. “Beach Scene” is a watercolor piece that Ms. Reich painted a few years back, inspired by summer and drawn from memory. In the painting, she depicts light showering down on the water and the dunes.

Olive Reich, pictured here in her Heights studio, is inspired by everything surrounding her. “Beach Scene” is a watercolor piece that Ms. Reich painted a few years back, inspired by summer and drawn from memory. In the painting, she depicts light showering down on the water and the dunes.Shelter Island is home to more than 40 painters, sculptors and photographers, according to a recent informal and by no means comprehensive tally by the Reporter staff. Some names will be well known to Islanders, others less so, but we thought it would be interesting to introduce them all to Reporter readers. This week we feature Olive Reich.
Can the public view your work at any particular location?
My work is always available during the summer season at my “Aquarelle” studio in the Heights, 20 Prospect Avenue, and year-round in the Wish Rock Gallery on Grand Avenue. The Gallery carries some of my small paintings and tiles of my images, plus my recent book “Watercolors.” In the fall I move back to my winter studio in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn where I also can be visited.
Do you specialize in one specific type of art? What is your preferred medium?
I paint in watercolor, and sometimes add collage to the work. I like to do still lifes, florals, landscapes, all with the intention of  focusing on the good things still around us and escape for a moment from the upsetting events happening all over the world.
Where is the most interesting place you’ve seen your art displayed?
The most interesting place that I have shown my work would be the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park, New York, where I have had several solo shows. It is a beautiful and historic building of which I am a juried art member. It is the former mansion of the Governor of New York Samuel J. Tilden, who won the popular vote for president of the United States in 1876 with 59 percent of voters, but was defeated by Rutherford B. Hayes by one disputed electoral vote. It is an exciting place to be and to display your work to so many interesting people.
What inspires your art? Why be an artist on Shelter Island?
Everything beautiful, colorful and interesting inspires my work. There is so much beauty and history around me, especially in the Heights, that even though I am not here full time, it is always around me in my mind, sketches, photos, etc.  
What is your biggest challenge as an artist? What is your greatest joy as an artist?
My biggest challenge as an artist is to keep the creative juices flowing and having the time to fulfill my ideas and put them down on paper. My greatest joy as an artist is seeing people’s response to my work: giving joy and appreciating my work.