Art appreciation: Ohio Township woman colors the world

Among the pages of the textbook “Art Through the Ages” by Helen Gardner, Carolyn Brahney learned to appreciate art and inspire others to embrace their creativity.

A 1962 graduate of Youngstown (now State) University with a Bachelor of Arts in fine arts and education, Brahney began teaching junior high school in Youngstown as well as at Youngstown University.

She picks up the 1,200-page 10th edition, one of several editions in her possession.

“This was my bible when I was teaching art appreciation and art history,” said Brahney, whose love for the arts spans more than seven decades. “It’s a heavy book. The students had to carry that to class. It’s my favorite because it has everything in it. It is the best art book ever. I always refer to it.”

The youngest of four, Brahney married James H. Brahney in 1964 (he died in 2009 at age 69). He was in the Air Force, and they moved to Reno, Nev., and then Los Angeles.

His service took him to be a rescue helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War.

When he returned from Vietnam, the couple lived on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio on two occasions.

She has a painting she made of one of the planes her husband flew as a test pilot for the Air Force that had an air cushion landing system.

Brahney’s teaching career included more than 30 years at the Community College of Allegheny County North Campus in McCandless. Her courses included painting, drawing and sculpture as well as design, color theory and art history and appreciation.

She retired in 2015.

“I love expressing myself and my emotions through art,” she said. “I love the beauty of art. I love beautiful things.”

She said she has always enjoyed sharing art with the people in her life. She loves the creative process of art. That beauty is displayed throughout her home, an art gallery of her work. Some paintings decorate the foyer, add intrigue to the living room and a touch of color to the stairwell.

As she talked to the Sewickley Herald about each one, she returned to that moment in time when the piece came to life.

Brahney, who will turn 86 on Aug. 16, said she began as an abstract expressionist oil painter and was inspired to incorporate figures within an abstract style using acrylic paint.

She expanded her repertoire to watercolor techniques, which evolved into a linear black ink monoprint technique, when she became executive director at the North Hills Art Center from 1986-1990.

That technique begins with a preliminary sketch placed beneath a large piece of glass. A toothpick is used as a tool with India ink to follow the sketch on top of the glass and then place a sheet of watercolor paper on top and press down to create a monoprint.

She developed art programs and exhibits for adults and children and curated many art exhibits. Two of those were with four other female artists called 5 UP at the USX Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh. A sequel — 5 UP II — was held at another gallery Downtown.

Part of the exhibits included floral arrangements made by members of the Ichiyo School of Ikebana to complement the art. All five women created a painting, where Brahney had the process videotaped.

She dedicated one of her shows to her late father, Ralph Peluso, who died a few days before the show. She has two framed photos of art he created in her home, of a city and a lake. Her dad and mother, Mary Ramunno Peluso, always supported their daughter’s love of art.

Brahney’s inspiration comes from her travels. She has lived in seven states and visited Canada, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Rome, Florence, Paris, London and Spain. She often would take photographs from her travels and make paintings or see a black-and-white image in a newspaper and re-create it in color.

Brahney has won numerous awards and was a member of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. She was president of the Pittsburgh Watercolor Society from 2003-04. Her artwork was exhibited in solo and joint shows in exhibits held by the Pittsburgh Watercolor Society, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh Society of Artists, Penn Art Association, American Association of University Women and other arts organizations.

She served as a juror for competitions from Pennsylvania to West Virginia to Ohio and Washington, D.C., and is in “Who’s Who of American Women” as an art educator.

Eric Brahney said his mother has impacted and influenced many students in the region. One of those people is Janet Pazzynski and her husband, Ed Wiancko, of Observatory Hill, who make up the acoustic duo Paz and Ukulele Eddie.

Pazzynski had Brahney at CCAC for a drawing class in 2008 and eventually became one of Brahney’s models for her classes.

“I was nervous at first, but Carolyn taught me so much,” Pazzynski said. “She encouraged me to do things I didn’t think I could do. We became friends and still are friends. She is encouraging and sweet and always so positive and upbeat. She has such a passion for art.”

That passion is clear the minute you walk into her home, where she has lived since 2014.

“Growing up, our home was decorated with original works of art,” said her daughter, Mary Brahney Roche, who lives in Phoenixville, Pa. “In addition to her own, she displayed works of fellow artisans and pieces she and my father collected during their travels. We always had an awareness and appreciation for art in various forms.”

Eric Brahney, who lives in Washington, D.C., said that throughout his childhood, the sheer act of creating was ever present.

“Whether it was her large-format oil paintings of gorgeous, wild abstracts in hot oranges or dark ambers, or helping us make little napkin holders in the shape of Cub Scouts out of felt as a craft project for my and my brother’s Cub Scout troop, she was always making something,” Eric Brahney said.

He said his mother’s creativity had a huge impact on him — although he inherited very little of her artistic talent, he said.

She has an eye for art, he said, and was able to balance work and home life.

“I felt like my mom put her family’s interests before her own. (The same goes for my dad),” said her son, Scott Brahney of Dorseyville. “My mom even used her artistic talent for different aspects of family events and get-togethers, and for the last several years has made custom-crafted cards for birthdays and other family milestones.”

Including those of her eight grandchildren.

Thinking back to when she was their age, she recalled that from the time she was a kid, she would get in trouble in elementary school for drawing pictures of people when she should have been solving math problems.

Once she got to high school, she said she was in the art room as much as she could possibly be.

“I have always had a love of art,” she said.

That’s why, when Eric Brahney found the first edition of “Gardner’s Art Through the Ages” from 1926, he bought it.

“Even as a little boy, I remember seeing her gigantic ‘Art Through the Ages’ book, which was like a bible to her,” Eric Brahney said. “She still has it.”