Celebrating Barbara Ernst Prey

Newsday

By Steve Parks, November 18, 2011

Nocturne IV

What

The Heckscher Museum honors artist Barbara Ernst Prey of Oyster Bay with a “Celebrate Achievement Benefit Gala” tomorrow.  Prey’s landscape paintings are included in many important public and private collections, from the White House, where President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush in 2003, invited her to create the official White House Christmas painting.  Her works also are in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and many others.  “Growing up on Long Island instilled in me a love for the landscape.”  Prey said of her gala honor at the Heckscher.  Her “Nocturne IV painting is now on view at the museum.  Tastings and libations are included in the celebration, plus a performance by “American Idol” contestant Jerome Bell.

When|Where

Gala is 5:30-8:30 p.m. tomorrow, Heckscher Museum of Art, 2 Prime Ave., Huntington.  Prey’s “Nocturne IV” will be on view through Jan. 8. along with current exhibitions, “Ripped: The Allure of Collage” and “A Way With Words: Text in Art,” on view through April15.  Museum hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends.