If you climb the three flights of stairs to the attic studio in the hundred year old house where Shelley Bartlett lives with her family, you will sense immediately what drives her soul. When you pass the weathered stain glass casement window on the landing you will mount the last five steps to the treasures from the past that fill every nook. There is a heavy linen Japanese Kimono with a hand painted sunset on it hanging next to a paper and bamboo Chinese parasol. Behind a white woven folding screen is a relic of a wooden table that once held her brother’s electric train set and is now piled high with boxes of memorabilia reserved for various family members should they ever decide to claim what falls to them. Heirloom Christmas decorations rest in wooden boxes behind a WWII footlocker (now painted royal blue) that once belonged to her Uncle Jim. Under another eave there is a long series of shelves and boxes crammed with old books, magazines,78 rpm records and ancient sheet music. Near the front window is a long and rustic farm table laden with dried flowers and lavender from her garden. Baskets are everywhere and the wide rough floor planks are covered with hand woven throw rugs and warm carpeting from foreign lands. The warm dark wood under the roof does not make for good lighting in this studio so there are two huge white canvas drop cloths fastened to the rafters to reflect as much light as the many lamps surrounding the wooden easel allow. This gives the entire studio the feeling of being under the sails of a Dutch boat.

Brushes, baskets of paint tubes, empty jars, curios and vases-a ceramic rooster, a Haitian doll… amidst it all, stacked and leaning are the paintings.

There is no modern art in this studio. There are still-life oil paintings of fruits and vegetables in baskets and glass bowls, on ceramic plates and wooden cutting boards. There are flowers from the garden, and paintings of women in warm rich tones. All rich in color, texture and detail. Some are painted on stretched canvas and some on panels.

You can say that the work is fresh and luminous, reflecting years of a life spent enjoying raising three sons and keeping a home filled with warmth and love. This is Shelley’s political statement.” Life”, she says, ”is too long not to fill it with as much beauty as you can. I do feel that it is the responsibility of the artist to keep the flame bright for the causes of man’s many struggles, however my place as an artist, I think ,is to give something that makes it all just a bit sweeter to bear.”

Shelley has recently been welcomed as a member of the Salmagundi Club on 5^th Avenue in New York.

For an appointment to visit the studio call 631-730-8137.Some of Shelleys work can be viewed at her web site www.shelleybartlettstudio.com.