Artist Opening Reception with Laura Bredin Hussey "The Places I've Been"

An artist opening reception with Laura Bredin Hussey in support of the Maria Mitchell Association. 

Laura Hussey has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember. Raised in a family steeped in art—her mother collected illustrations by N.C. Wyeth and Arthur Rackham—she eventually found her own artistic voice in landscapes.

Her connection to Nantucket began in childhood, when her father would rent an entire Greyhound bus to ferry six children and a menagerie of animals to the island each summer. (The dogs and pigs came along; Laura’s pony, despite her best efforts, did not.) In 1978, Hussey put down roots on the island, raising her three children near Windswept Bog.

Hussey studied with the Northeast’s preeminent landscape artists including John Osborn and John MacDonald, developing a deep appreciation for tonalism and the subtleties of light and shadow. Inspired not by drama but by quietude, her brushstrokes capture intimate, fleeting moments that a camera can’t quite capture—mist across a field, the warmth of a shadow, the interplay of color and texture.

An avid traveler, Hussey has traveled the globe in search of the world’s most compelling landscapes, her tiny paint box in hand. Her upcoming show The Places I’ve Been brings together works inspired by the Scottish Highlands, Tasmania, Cumberland Island, Georgia, and her beloved Nantucket. Each painting, she says, is a memory made permanent.

“When you paint something, it becomes part of your brain forever,” said Hussey. “I want people to feel peace, like they’re walking in a landscape that’s soothing.”