The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Stacey Pfeffer

Basso by PXK: Local Italian Restaurant Aims to Please, Chef Peter Kelley Brings Us Culinary Magic

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PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

Chappaqua foodies can now rejoice thanks to Basso by PXK, an Italian restaurant formerly known as Basso 56 on Lower King Street. The restaurant now features a new Culinary Director celebrated chef Peter X. Kelly, a James Beard Foundation nominee behind some of the county’s hottest restaurants including the much beloved but now shuttered X20 in Yonkers.

Inside Chappaqua had the chance to speak with Kelly and see what plans he has in store for local diners as he trades the down county restaurant scene for the more bucolic environs of northern Westchester.

Chappaqua was a natural fit for Kelly who over the years has amassed a great following of local clientele at his other now defunct restaurants including X20 in Westchester and Restaurant X and Freelance Café over the bridge in Rockland County. He is excited to bring his culinary talent to our town and bring his four decades of delighting guests to the 10514. “I love it when I see a phone number with 238 in our reservations system with OpenTable or on our website,” he proclaims. The “X” by the way is for his middle name Xaviar.

Kelly does not plan on completely overhauling the restaurant. “I wanted to keep what was wonderful about the restaurant but add a new signature style to it,” he explains. He was excited to focus on one cuisine as many of his other restaurants have featured a combination of different cuisines. He’s always had an affinity and a great appreciation for Italian cuisine. In fact, Kelly is a self-proclaimed “wine nut” and has visited the Chianti region of Tuscany and Milan many times which helped to inspire some of his dishes at Basso by PXK. “There is something very welcoming about Italian food. My wife and I have a deep respect for it and always crave it. (He has been known to frequent Arthur Avenue restaurants closer to home) It is not overwrought and it is more relaxed,” he explains. “Working within one cuisine is stylistically fun and eye opening. It really gets the creative juices flowing.”

PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

So, what can diners expect when they step foot in the newly named restaurant? Besides the immediate feeling of warm and welcoming hospitality, some new appetizers include veal sweetbreads with beach mushrooms and fennel pollen plus a parmesan polenta or a butternut squash spuma with local vegetables and crushed pistachio. Traditional favorites such as Caesar salad and chicken parmigiano were kept on the menu but if diners are looking to expand their culinary palate, options abound. “There is a spirit of discovery on the menu,” he adds.

Basso 56 was always known for its in-house pastas and Kelly continues to make homemade pasta with some new dishes thrown in the mix. For example, hand-cut chitarra pasta with shrimp and uni butter. He also introduced some new entrees that are proving to be popular such as a breast of duckling with marsala sabayon. In addition, Kelly brought in a new grill so that diners could enjoy simply prepared items such as a sirloin Fiorentina or a grilled Atlantic swordfish. Meals can be completed with sumptuous desserts including an olive oil panna cotta or warm chocolate cake with vanilla gelato.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

Brunch has always been a favorite meal of Kelly’s and a crowd pleaser for those lucky enough to score a reservation at one of his restaurants. Inspired by a dining experience in Milan, Kelly has started a “POTS, PANS, and PASTA” brunch on Sundays at Basso by PXK with no menu. At the Milan restaurant, the servers kept on sending a variety of dishes to the table – a braised meat, a nice piece fish and a pasta with dessert. “It was so relaxing.” Diners at Basso by PXK can expect a table adorned with soppressata, fruit, imported cheeses, olives and bread and then the culinary parade starts coming out. “We start sending out dishes until you cry zio or uncle,” says Kelly who aspires to recreate his memorable Milan experience. The menu also features $5 bellinis with the same recipe originated at Harry’s Bar in Venice. Realizing that Chappaqua is a community with many young families, children under 8 dine free and the youngest diners will be sure to love the palate-pleasing pastas or chicken parmigiano.

Being embraced by the community is so important for Kelly. With that in mind, the restaurant wants to be known as the go to celebratory spot-on Saturday afternoons for occasions such as bridal showers or anniversary parties. As Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduation is on the horizon, Kelly and his staff are busy creating dishes that are special and reflect the celebratory nature of these events. Indoors, the restaurant can accommodate up to 80 people. Kelly is also embarking on renovating the outdoor space in the back of the restaurant to accommodate diners in warmer weather. He’s not sure yet what iteration it will become but creative ideas are brewing.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

He also spent many hours observing how the restaurant worked before taking over the helm. “I needed to see how everything worked from the dishwasher to what was being served at the bar.” Implementing a new cocktail and wine list was key as previously the bar was an underutilized space. By adding high top tables and the new drinks, the bar has become a buzzy area with diners even clamoring to sit by the high-top tables. Kelly suggests that for busy Friday and Saturday nights, diners make reservations at the restaurant a few weeks in advance.

“At the end of the day, I want to be a great local restaurant that you return to over and over again. Whether it is enjoying a plate of pasta at the bar with a glass of wine or celebrating a special occasion where you sit in the restaurant. We are aiming to provide great food in an approachable way,” he said. He’s incredibly grateful to the co-owners Sherif Nezaj and Sammy Ukaj, long-term friends of his in the culinary world, for bringing him in and allowing him to give the restaurant a boost. “Thanks to their commitment this place is happening. It was a great but quiet restaurant before. We’ve gone from 10 miles per hour to 110,” he said but Kelly is, as ever, always up for the challenge.

Social Activities Fight Isolation & Enhance Wellness for Armonk Seniors

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PHOTO BY CATHY PINSKY

My husband and I have felt thickly entrenched in the “sandwich generation” these past few years. We each have parents that became widows recently and we have spent a lot of time worrying not only about our parents’ physical health but also about their mental health. Myriad news articles illustrated that loneliness and social isolation in the elderly, which was so prevalent during the pandemic is associated with a higher risk for health problems such as heart disease, depression, and cognitive decline.

While both of us have very different scenarios for our parents – my father-in-law had to move to an assisted living facility and my mother is moving to an apartment building with many seniors her age, we both felt that the opportunity for strong social networks that they can forge in their new homes would help them successfully age.

Although our parents don’t live locally there’s good news for seniors who are looking to create social connections right here in Armonk – whether they partake in activities at the Hergenhan Community Center on Maple Avenue or are residents at The Bristal on Business Park Drive which offers assisted living or memory care options. Both focus on helping seniors stay connected with one another through a range of activities.

For the past 13 years, Liz Duffy has worked as the Senior Rec Leader at the Hergenhan Community Center. She has watched it grow from an underused facility for seniors to a thriving community with robust programming. “I like to think of this place as an oasis for seniors,” says Duffy. Senior residents of North Castle can partake in many activities ranging from Mah Jong to mandala workshops to the ever-popular exercises classes such as strength training and chair yoga all complimentary. Accessibility to and from the Hergenhan Community Center is available via a free van.

PHOTO BY CATHY PINSKY

Duffy is always thinking of new ways to engage seniors. For example, during the COVID pandemic she had an abundance of yarn and a craft room that was disorganized and unwelcoming. Serendipitously, a senior had just relocated to the area who had previously owned a knitting store and was willing to spearhead a new knitting group. Together, Duffy with the help of some of the other seniors created a warm, welcoming place for seniors of all levels to knit. “Liz worked so hard to make that room a comfortable and enjoyable place to knit,” said Rae Spinelli, 94, a senior who participates regularly in the knitting group as well as other activities at the center. “The sharing part in our group is the best. We share in each other’s grief and happiness,” adds Spinelli who started going to the senior center when her husband passed away from Alzheimer’s 10 year ago. A friend of Spinelli’s told her that she needed to join the senior center instead of isolating herself at home and remaining grief stricken.

“The knitting group laughs a lot and has a large age range from people in their 60s into their 90s with different abilities,” says Duffy who adds that they have made many blankets for veterans. “It is beautiful to watch these friendships form,” she comments.

Spinelli also frequently participates in the exercise programs at the center. A long-time yoga enthusiast, Spinelli enjoys the chair yoga and believes that the balance gained through the classes is a key factor in preventing falls. The center also offers strength training classes and chair yoga on Tuesdays via Zoom, which had started during the pandemic.

PHOTO BY CATHY PINSKY

Home delivered meals are also an option at the center. “We have a group of volunteers that deliver meals to seniors and the nice thing about that is these volunteers form a relationship with the seniors. They alert us if a senior needs help in any way. We are not a social service agency but we are keeping an eye out for them,” explains Duffy.

One of the most popular activities is trips outside of Armonk. Duffy hires a coach bus for roundtrip transportation and for a reasonable fee has had seniors partake in trips such as a Thimble Islands cruise in Connecticut, the Culinary Institute of America, the Cloisters and even the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Duffy is committed to keeping costs nominal for the participants whether it is an off-site trip or a luncheon at a local restaurant. Duffy admits that there may be an initial reluctance to come to the center. But once seniors do, they are pleasantly surprised.

“Seniors sometimes feel like they are the only one who lost a spouse or had to move to be closer to their adult children. Once they start having a conversation, new friendships are formed. This place really does fight social isolation which we know is so detrimental for seniors. Plus, there’s a lot of laughter,” she adds. While the majority of the seniors are independent that go to the Hergenhan Community Center, the residents at The Bristal may need help with activities of daily living or be experiencing memory loss. Mark Paretti, who is Vice President of Resident Experience for all of The Bristal’s 26 communities across the tri-state area, like Duffy, is always looking at ways to offer programs that keep the residents there socially engaged.

“We look at the dimensions of wellness for each resident both physically and cognitively,” says Paretti. From daily walking clubs to yoga and grip strength classes, The Bristal ensures that multiple times throughout the day their residents can be physically active. Paretti and his team also create stimulating programs that enhance lifelong learning. Through partnerships with esteemed universities such as Hofstra University, Pace University, and the Fashion Institute of Technology, residents have access to higher education-level courses right within their community. It is a voluntary lifelong learning program for residents with lectures, discourses, and other educational content covering a wide range of topics such as politics, science, media and entertainment. “Ideally, we want the residents to learn new things that they didn’t know the day before to enhance their brain plasticity and build neural connections. For residents with memory loss, we can’t reverse that, but we can slow its progression,” he adds.

PHOTO BY CATHY PINSKY

Paretti is also laser-focused on making new residents feel welcome. They pair residents with similar interests and also have resident ambassadors who have lived there a while to acclimate newer residents. “Obviously the onus is on us at The Bristal to make new residents feel part of the community. But sometimes a resident may feel more comfortable speaking to someone who moved there, just like them.” These strong social connections can reduce depression and hopefully improve longevity.

One of the highlights for many of the residents are supervised weekly shopping trips to stores such as CVS or Target. “This shouldn’t be underestimated. Residents are going to the store themselves and buying what they need which helps them maintain a level of independence. It is meaningful for them.” Paretti says there are no limits to what outings residents can go on from beloved restaurants to sporting events. “We don’t just want our residents taking scenic drives to see fall foliage or holiday lights. We want feet on the ground so that are residents are engaged and active in the community at large.”

“Imagine if you moved to a new place and never left the four walls of your apartment. It would be devastating. Our overall goal is that residents find each day to be meaningful and purposeful. And we want that to exist for them, today, tomorrow and thereafter. We will customize the experience for them and support them in this goal. Like everyone else, seniors need a reason to get up in the morning too,” he summarizes.

Local Author’s Debut Novel “Klara’s Truth” Focuses on Trauma & Offers Tips for Healing

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Mount Kisco resident Susan Weissbach Friedman has been a practicing psychotherapist for more than 25 years. Many of her patients suffered from trauma and a few have been Holocaust survivors or descendants of survivors. While the Holocaust did not directly impact her family, the concept of intergenerational trauma and a lifelong love of writing inspired her to write her debut novel Klara’s Truth.

The fictional novel took Friedman a decade to write and focuses on the protagonist, Dr. Klara Lieberman, an archaeology professor, who receives a letter from her estranged mother, Bessie, telling her that her absentee father since childhood is dead. Klara has always wondered about her father’s past during World War II in Poland which is now giving out financial reparations for land it stole from Jewish citizens during the war and her mother want to claim the money. Klara is not interested in the money – but she does want answers about her father and so she flies to Warsaw, determined to learn more. The book has received praise from Kirkus Reviews, Foreword Reviews and the Jewish Book Council.

Friedman has always been interested in archaeology and believes that psychotherapy often excavates memories. “Although I am not a Freudian, he did believe that psychotherapists were like the archaeologists of the mind by digging deep and Freud was very interested in artifacts much like Klara.”

During therapy, Friedman has observed firsthand how trauma affects people’s emotional development. “How big a life can people build or will they be more insular and afraid to take risks? There can be a level of fear about how much risk they will take and it can impact jobs, relationships and so many things. Plus, internally some people prefer to just become numb and when we start exploring it and digging deeper in therapy, it can hurt more initially,” she explains.

“Although I didn’t set out with the idea of writing a novel about trauma and healing on multiple levels – individual, family, societal, and geopolitical, I would say that Klara’s Truth touches on all of these areas as it focuses on healing past hurts and wrongs on many levels. The Holocaust resonates as a very palpable large-scale horrific trauma affecting millions, and in this way, it became an overshadowing backdrop for this largely present-day story,” explained Friedman.

Along with her husband, Friedman visited Poland in 2014, the same year in which her novel begins, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Friedman found the trip intense and informative, as she visited many desecrated Jewish cemeteries.

Writing her first novel was a labor of love while maintaining a full-time psychotherapy practice. The story was written in parts and needed a cohesive narrative so Friedman honed her craft at writing workshops at Sarah Lawrence’s Writing Institute and GrubStreet. At Sarah Lawrence, Friedman met a classmate Dr. Stephanie Newman, author of Barbarians at the PTA who encouraged her to work with a developmental editor to help piece together the disparate sections.

Friedman decided to close her practice last year to focus on her writing. “There was a lot of push and pull with that decision but I ultimately think it was the right decision,” she adds. She already has a prequel in development to Klara’s Truth and has been busy promoting her current book through podcasts, readings and book signings throughout the Hudson Valley and Boston.

In light of October 7th and an unprecedented surge in antisemitism she hopes the book will serve as a springboard for discussion about these important topics. “I think my book, from its 2014 perspective, is quite relevant to the discussion of how easily antisemitism can rise and manifest itself in huge and horribly destructive ways,” she concludes.

How to Find a Specialist for Trauma Therapy

Friedman offers these tips to those in need of therapy for traumatic experiences:

  • Look for a therapist trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and/or Somatic Experiencing. Research a therapist on Psychology Today’s website with these qualifications or go to EMDRIA, EMDR International Association Home, and then look for ‘Find a Therapist’. EMDR helps people to bring up buried and fragmented traumas more easily in a safe and contained way.
  • They can also go to Somatic Experiencing and then look for ‘Find a Therapist’. Both of these methods help people to resolve trauma and other stress responses. Somatic Experiencing is body centered, and helps people to connect more with what they feel in their bodies particularly around trauma.
  • Ask the practitioner about their training in these modalities, as some people are certified and have completed a long course of training and others haven’t.

Lights, Camera, Action: Why the Film Industry LOVES Our Northern Westchester Towns

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Many scenes from the “Gilded Age” were shot at Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown
Photo Courtesy of Westchester County Tourism and Film/Flickr

The iconic phrase “lights, camera, action” is often associated with films shot in Hollywood studios or perhaps with actors featured against a backdrop of the Manhattan skyline but Westchester County is starting to get its fair share of film production thanks to efforts from County Executive George Latimer and Westchester County Tourism & Film (WCTF). Despite industry-wide challenges in 2022 and 2023, film production in Westchester still yielded $2 billion in economic activity, 6,796 jobs and $656 million in wages during those two years. The Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild strikes in 2023 and lingering effects from the COVID pandemic significantly halted film and television production activity across the nation and unfortunately in our county but WCTF’s Senior Marketing Manager Sarah Marshall is optimistic about the industry’s future here in Westchester. “This year’s economic impact research showed resilience amidst the strikes and competitive pressures,” she noted.

WCTF provides location guidance, offers technical site visits, and facilitates the permit process for those wanting to film anywhere throughout the county’s 500 square miles. Westchester has actually had a long history with film production – dating back over 100 years to the silent film era. “We have film-friendly, camera-ready communities in Westchester that are receptive to production and welcoming to the industry. They appreciate the economic benefits and the excitement that filming brings. It’s a point of pride for communities,” notes Marshall. In addition to movies, episodic TV shows, music videos, fashion photography and commercials are all shot throughout Westchester. “We get hundreds of inquiries a year,” notes WCTF’s Director Natasha Caputo. Many of the episodic shows have renewed their contracts for the following year and have multiple episodes in a season such as FBI: Most Wanted offering a steady revenue stream for the county.

Film professionals are attracted to Northern Westchester for a variety of reasons. Scenic landscapes abound in Northern Westchester. With rolling hills, forests, and rivers, locations like Muscoot Farm, Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard and Hilltop Hanover Farm provide stunning backdrops for various types of scenes. Northern Westchester towns offer many filming locations including farms, parks, lakes, and small-town settings. This versatility can reduce the need and expense of extensive set building. A mix of historic homes, estates, quaint villages, and modern architecture allows for a wide range of filming possibilities, from period pieces like The Gilded Age to contemporary stories. Northern Westchester’s proximity to NYC means access to experienced crew members, equipment rental companies, and post-production facilities without the high costs associated with filming in the city itself.

Director of the The Gilded Age (HBO), Michael Engler noted: “It’s all about location, location, location. [Westchester has] these magnificent homes and estates which bear the unmistakable imprint of The Gilded Age. We also shoot up there because of the space – land, big parking lots, parks, and pathways. People were extremely friendly and gracious. We all love shooting in Westchester.” Many of the scenes were shot at Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown.

Recent award-winning and popular productions that filmed in Westchester in 2022 and 2023 included The Crowded Room (Apple TV+); FBI: Most Wanted (CBS); Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (FX, Hulu); The Gilded Age (HBO); The Girls on the Bus (HBO); Leave the World Behind (Netflix); Life and Beth (Hulu); Maestro (Netflix); Poker Face (Peacock); Succession (HBO); Severance (Apple TV+); and The White House Plumbers (HBO). This past summer, the county earned 32 Emmy nominations for films and television shows filmed throughout Westchester during the past year.

Caputo and her team act as the facilitators for each municipality. Each municipality often has their own town liaison and often it is the town clerk who handles the permit process for filming. Her team however provides permits for all county-owned property – trailways, jails, morgue, parks etc. “A lot of times it is vistas and views here in Westchester but sometimes it can be something more mundane like a garage. We want to increase film activity for the economic benefits here. Filming supports jobs and wages,” Caputo says.

For example, lodging-related tax revenue (sales and occupancy tax) associated with film industry activity contributed $2.9 million to the County and municipalities in 2022.

Filming also can provide a different revenue stream for local businesses. One such example is Pleasantville’s Pace University which has a very modern facility and a lot of acreage. “Pace University is a sought-after filming spot due to its versatile 200-acre campus, modern facilities, and proximity to New York City. The campus offers ample green space and diverse facilities that can accommodate wardrobe, makeup, and craft services,” explains Marshall. Additionally, Pace provides an on-site liaison to assist productions from start to finish. With plenty of room for parking and ancillary production space, the university has also been used as a base camp for HBO productions, including The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Gilded Age, and a not-yet-released film limited series starring Robert DeNiro, called Zero Day and a Netflix film starring Brie Larson that is not titled as of press time.

Another example is Pleasantville’s Club Infinity, a private nightclub style event space that is often used to celebrate Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, fundraisers, corporate functions and birthdays. “We have been involved in a number of television productions through the years including The Blacklist (NBC), Divorce (HBO), the Netflix movie Leave the World Behind and most recently a new series on Apple TV called The Savant. They all used the club as the location to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner for both cast and crew. For Divorce, they were filming in a mansion in Armonk, but they needed to do their cast readings in our Bose Club. “So that’s how I got to chat with Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church and it was pretty cool,” exclaimed Ed Gaynor of Club Infinity.

“The film industry is a very fluid business and a lot goes into filming a live scene,” notes Caputo. Script changes, timing of events and weather can all impact the set.

“There are a lot of freelancers in this business and it is so important to be film-friendly. It’s great when they recall doing a base camp at Pleasantville and they remember that they were flexible, accommodating and were solution-oriented for any challenges that arose because they will [hopefully] remember that for their next project,” Caputo remarks.

Some films or TV shows filmed over the years in local towns include:

Pleasantville

Elementary – Pleasantville Diner
A Netflix film starring Brie Larson (title TBD) – Pace University
The university has also been used as a base camp for HBO productions, including The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Gilded Age, and a not-yet-released film limited series starring Robert DeNiro, called Zero Day

Briarcliff Manor

Greatest Showman, Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, Gotham, The Blacklist – Sleepy Hollow Country Club
The Sinner – St. Theresa’s Church

Chappaqua

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies – private home on Haights Cross Road
Billions
The Sinner

North White Plains

Manifest – Cranberry Lake Preserve
Mr. Robot – Kensico Dam
A Beautiful Mind – New York Medical College

Art & Soul: Getting to Know Painter Amy Shaw

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As a young girl growing up in Manhattan, Amy Shaw was exposed to all types of art on frequent family trips to museums. In addition, her great aunt was an artist who studied under abstract painter Arshile Gorky. Attending the Dalton School, Shaw was exposed to the “city as a classroom” learning model with access to figure drawing, sculpture, pottery and jewelry making.

Her passion for the arts continued after high school. Shaw earned a double major in fine arts and philosophy at Smith College in Massachusetts. She then went on to the Art Students League in NYC to further expand her fine arts study. As much as she enjoyed painting, Shaw soon realized that it was not a lucrative profession. “Art was always a passion of mine, but after college I realized that I needed to expand into commercial art and graphic design/advertising in order to make a sustainable living in NYC,” she said. Shaw decided to take classes at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons nights and weekends to build a portfolio in advertising and graphic design. This eventually helped her land a job at one of the most well-respected advertising agencies, Ogilvy & Mather.

Shaw continued to work in graphic design after moving to the suburbs to start a family. For 22 years, she was the Senior Art Director in promotion at Reader’s Digest. Raising her two young children and working full-time, Shaw did not have as much time to devote to painting as she would like but as her son and daughter grew up, Shaw soon found herself back at the canvas, primarily working on oil paintings.

“For years I painted portraits and people but as I got older, I was inspired to do landscapes and still life.” Spending more time outdoors during the pandemic, gave her time to explore nature. “I’m inspired by beauty and fun things around me,” she says as evident in her oil paintings of desserts, dresses, and east coast landscapes. Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Diebenkorn and Elaine de Kooning, all very different artists, have influenced her work.

Shaw has continuously evolved as an artist and is now painting abstract work with acrylics. “I didn’t use acrylic until five years ago. Unlike oil which takes weeks to dry, acrylic dries almost immediately and you can get more texture in your painting in less time,” she explains. She is currently taking classes at Pelham Arts Center to expand her knowledge in abstract art and the use of acrylics.

Her paintings have been shown at Mimi’s Coffee House in Mount Kisco, Black Cow Coffee House, Pleasantville, Carriage Barn, New Canaan, Pelham Art Center, Ridgefield Artists Guild, the Katonah Library and Carmel’s Arbor Gallery and the RPAC Gallery in Ridgefield which recently closed.

While working at Reader’s Digest, Shaw realized that she wanted to work with children and get back into the fine art process, so she created a program teaching children in the South Bronx on Saturdays about important artists, art history and the elements of art through a volunteer organization called the Renaissance Youth Center. Shaw taught the students about art in everyday life and how it ties into history, math, science, music and nature. Her students created mini-masterpieces while soaking up relevant historical information. Shaw said it was a rewarding experience working in an area that had very little funding for arts programs in the schools. “Our students in the towns around us are so lucky that they have exposure to amazing art programs in the schools,” she noted.

Fast forward a few years and Shaw set out to create an after-school art program that would serve Westchester and Connecticut students. In 2015, Shaw opened the Westchester Art Studio along with Connecticut-based artist Alan Reingold. Shaw met Reingold while her daughter (who is now a freelance fashion designer) and several of her friends were students at Horace Greeley High School and working on their portfolios for college. They would spend their afternoons with Reingold who is an accomplished artist having visited the White House to draw presidential portraits and illustrating several covers of ­TIME magazine. Reingold taught previously at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Parsons and focused on teaching teens and adults while Shaw focused on younger students up to age 10. The duo proved a winning combination and the studio flourished. Next year will be their tenth year in business with classes held at St. John Episcopal Church in Pleasantville.

Westchester Art Studio was just selected for a show at Mt. Kisco’s Blue Heron, where students of all ages will have artwork on display mid-November through January.

Shaw continues to paint not only in her studio at home but also at the RPAC in Ridgefield. She loves living in Chappaqua where she has easy access to world class museums and galleries just a short MetroNorth ride away. When we conducted this interview, she had just seen an exhibit at the Whitney over the weekend. It is obvious that she lives and breathes art and suggests that aspiring artists keep on sharpening their skills but also be prepared to pivot to a different type of art or creative work that can help pay the bills.

For now, Shaw will continue to make art because she enjoys making people feel good. “I love being able to transport people with my art by looking at a beautiful landscape, an abstract painting, or something whimsical like a martini or a dessert,” she said. To get a sense of Shaw’s work, visit amyshawpaintings.com.