Thursday, October 1, 2026
Visitors stopping by the Sea Cliff Village Library can’t help but notice a room filled with paintings and prints of beaches, sea gulls, historic landmarks and people enjoying ice cream.
The artwork of long-time Sea Cliff resident Doug Barnaby, which was initially on display at the library in March, will remain throughout April. The collection captures local Long Island scenes, as well as iconic New York landmarks.
The Sea Cliff Arts Council, which is sponsoring the exhibit, seeks to promote and support the artistic community. They seek to make the arts a prominent and vital presence in the village, through art showcases, invitational art exhibitions, and by promoting local artists like Barnaby to exhibit works at the library for two months at a time.
Heidi Hunt, co-chair of the Arts Council, said there’s a need to highlight artists.
“It’s incredibly important for us to provide Sea Cliff artists a space to show their work,” Hunt explained. “It opens our visitor’s eyes, literally to a visual art form they wouldn’t experience otherwise.”
Barnaby began his studies under Harold Stevenson in 1966, a protégé of famed American artist Norman Rockwell, at the Stevenson Academy of Tradition Painting, which no longer exists. He also studied with Attila Hejja, a prize winning illustrator who served as an official artist for NASA’s Apollo and Mars space programs.
Barnaby has worked with oils, pastels and pencil, but currently focuses mostly on acrylics. One significant aspect of his work is the varying relationships between light and shadow. He is drawn to a wide variety of subjects, including seascapes, especially in and around his native Sea Cliff. He is also fascinated by cityscapes and buildings.
“I like city scenes, and scenes with people,” Barnaby explained. “I love subway platforms, children, seagulls. My body of work is very eclectic.”
Barnaby has previously been featured as the Artist of the Month at the Sea Cliff Village Library and has exhibited his work at Sea Cliff’s Michael Anthony Gallery. In addition to this local acknowledgement, he’s exhibited at Setauket’s Gallery North, not to mention numerous other venues across Long Island. Barnaby recently won an honorable mention at the Art League of Long Island’s member show.
“Because he paints our surroundings, specifically our Sea Cliff community, so beautifully,” Hunt said, “it’s just wonderful that his work can be shown at a central location like the library.“
The walls of the gallery space in the back of the library are specifically used to showcase local artist’s works.
Most of the pieces on display this April were painted by Barnaby over the last few months. In March the paintings and art he showed were mainly focused on Sea Cliff. This month his works highlight New York. A central piece is of two people enjoying an ice cream cone in front of a cast iron façade in SoHo, called The Ice Cream Break.
“I figured that Sea Cliff people had probably seen enough Sea Cliff stuff already,” Barnaby said. “I thought that by adding these paintings, it’d give people a little more variety.”
Barnaby said he thinks Sea Cliff is right to highlight its local artists, calling it one of the community’s many strengths.
“Sea Cliff has always been a village of artists, as long as I’ve been living here,” Barnaby said. “We’re an artsy type of community, and I think it’s great we celebrate that.”
