Country Life: Homes of the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley
A bedroom in the Wynkoop House, a home where George Washington once slept in 1782. “His ghost lingers: our first president still gazes from lithographs, paintings, and sculptures throughout the house,” says Abranowicz.
Written by Robert Leleux, photography by William Abranowicz
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In Country Life, famed photographer William Abranowicz documents the residences of the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley, ranging from the grand to the rustic.
The historic Stone Ridge home of antiques dealer Ron Sharkey, described by Abranowicz as “refreshingly airy, with the aesthetic restraint of a Swedish farmhouse.”
From the historic houses of painters Thomas Cole and Frederic Church to the contemporary homes of local artists and writers, this volume explores creative lives conducted amidst a glorious natural setting. It’s a setting that Abranowicz has loved, and called home, for decades. And he’s not the only one. “Everyone in this book,” writes the photographer in his introduction, “moved upstate to find something or to return to something that was missing for them….For those of us living here, it is about the ease of connecting to nature and its beneficent effects on all the very basic elements of us, as humans, and on the nourishment of spirit and soul.” That nourishment is evident in the décor of the twenty homes selected for Country Life, each of which seems to revel in the comfortable, the lived-in and laidback. Perhaps inspired by the authenticity of their surroundings, none of these interiors is “dressed to impress,” and each seems designed in service to the lives of its owners and creators. Those creators are, by the way, a fantastically eclectic bunch, including a museum curator, a yogi, and a “hall of fame BBQ chef.” But most importantly, these individuals are Abranowicz’s friends and neighbors, a fact that lends this work a sense of warmth and comradeship, and makes it, in Abranowicz’s words, “a social document of a period, place, and people.” “While design and architecture are of interest to me,” he continues, “it is the distillation of the intangible qualities of these immensely talented people, and the ways they’re inscribed into their
homes, studios, and properties, that lit a fire in me.” It will do likewise for Country Life’s readers and admirers.
Everyone in this book moved upstate to find something or to return to something that was missing for them….For those of us living here, it is about the ease of connecting to nature and its beneficent effects on all the very basic elements of us, as humans, and on the nourishment of spirit and soul.
The dining room at Maple Lawn, restored by antiques dealer Ron Sharkey.
One of the oldest homes in Andes, on a plot once settled by a soldier of the Revolution, the property was thoughtfully restored by Jason Frank, creative lead at Ralph Lauren Home, and writer Vinny Lopez. “It’s like it had just been sleeping, and instead of restoration, it was like we’d woken it back up,” says Lopez.
The couple’s collection of Americana and antiques add even more authentic patina to the home.
The Stanfordville Home of Mita and Gerald Bland that sits on seventy-eight acres near the Hudson.
“Mita’s watercolors coat the walls, accompanied by sporting art, architectural prints, old photographs, and the odd modern piece, armoring every surface in carefree agglomerations,” says Abranowicz.
A view of Jessica Piazza and Tim Unich’s pastoral compound in Saugerties.