Thursday, October 1, 2026
Elmont Memorial Library hosted an artist reception for Ilene Prager-Smith, whose watercolor paintings were displayed in the library’s art gallery for the month of May, on May 25.
Prager-Smith, a watercolor artist from Oceanside, featured 12 art pieces, drawing inspiration from trips to Europe with her husband. This included five paintings set in Venice, Italy, as well as an illustration of a calypso dancer in Spain.
“I just love the places that I went to,” Prager-Smith said. “I wanted to have my own personal experience recorded in color.”
Described by Pat Maraia, Prager-Smith’s colleague, as a “very colorful person and spirit,” she said Prager-Smith is always aiming high. Maraia, who has attended art classes with Prager-Smith, mentioned that she would always partake in bigger projects.
“I was a beginner, and I was doing my little things, and then she’s doing these big things,” Piselli said, smiling.
Prager-Smith explained that she draws inspiration from her experiences, and then expresses it in her own art. Some of her artwork also includes matting, a process which adds a border to the artwork within a frame to make a piece of artwork more aesthetically pleasing.
Her motives for matting, Prager-Smith said, are simply to make her pieces more pleasing to her eyes, rather than a specific vision she has for a piece. “The way I see it as I frame it, I bring it to the custom framer and I tell her what I want,” she said.
Many patrons in attendance highlighted her skills as an artist. Robin Donovan, who attends the same Town of Hempstead Cultural Arts classes as Prager-Smith, highlighted the attention and “sensitivity” to detail.
“Her color palette is very subtle but if you squint your eyes, you can really see what’s really popping out as a first read,” Donovan said. She also gave praise to Prager-Smith’s underpainting skills — the application of a base layer of paint to a canvas or surface — highlighting that the skill is “critical” for a painter.
Prager-Smith’s use of colors was also praised by attendees of the artist reception, including Veronica Piselli, a close friend of hers. “She loves to use colorsvery flamboyant and animated,” she said.
The collection of paintings of Venice drew the most attention from patrons. Piselli said some remarked over the myriad of colors present in the artwork.
“The vividness of the color — there’s an excitement that I feel when I look at this,” she explained, referencing Prager-Smith’s work. “The color really takes me in.”
Thomas Santo, a Valley Stream resident, also commented on Prager-Smith’s use of color.
“Very balanced, there’s a linear quality about it,” he said in reference to her work titled “Romana in Venice.”
Santo also praised the water Prager-Smith painted. “It seems real,” he said. “You feel the tropics and the movement in the ocean.”
Lee Gorray, an adult reference librarian who curated the exhibit, spoke highly of Prager-Smith, crowning her as a “very talented watercolorist.” Gorray said she often receives submissions for prospective artists to showcase their work at Elmont Memorial. Gorray said Prager-Smith’s work was beautiful, and it’s one of the reasons why Prager-Smith was invited back for a second exhibit at the library.
Prager-Smith gave praise to the uniqueness of the library’s layout.
“I love the library, I think it is a fabulous place,” she said. “It’s a lovely setting, in here you have your own section to show art. And then I also have a reception, which makes it very nice and personable. Very homey.”
Prager-Smith started her career as a clothing designer, and manufactured under her own label, Prager Smith Designs. She then continued her career as a special education teacher at Benjamin Cardoza High School in Bayside Queens, teaching art and academic remediation to her students. Now retired, Prager-Smith has taken a keen interest in watercolor painting, and hopes to become more active in the art community.
