Artist-in-Residence: Larry Boschetto and Steven Kinder’s Water Mill Estate

Retired ad exec Larry Boschetto, whose CV includes CEO/COO of one of the world’s largest global advertising networks, and husband Steven Kinder, a Cooper Union grad and talented painter and sculptor who had the good fortune to apply his artistic gifts to Wall Street, as head of creative services and promotion for Prudential Securities, have been together for 25 years.

Their Hamptons life has included a home in East Hampton, since sold, and a collection of beachy bungalows in Sag Harbor, which they still own. But since 2006, home for the couple and their extended family, which starting in 2018 included Boschetto’s late mom, “Tootsie,” and another close family friend who they cared for, has been “The Park,” their much-loved and labored Water Mill estate.

When they first encountered the property, it was a typical imposing Hamptons McMansion. Spacious indeed — over 9,000 square feet! — and set on almost 2 acres abutting protected farmland, the interior of the house was still in its finishing stages, so they were able to make it truly their own. “We added a great deal of millwork,” said Boschetto, pointing to the elaborate crown moldings and paneled walls lining the soaring foyer. “We also created a vestibule, otherwise you just sort of walked into the staircase first thing.”

In keeping with the style of the early 2000s, the house has a traditional layout of large rooms radiating off the center hall, many with coffered ceilings and all super-sized. Private spaces are equally generous, what with six en suite bedrooms and the prerequisite basement screening room and gym. The décor is contemporary and soothing, at first directed by the owners but given skillful finishing touches by Jennifer Mabley and Austin Handler of Mabley Handler Interior Design. But this house is a story about two intersecting passions: that of gardening and art, combined with an unabashed zest for tweaking. Within a year after moving in, a plumbing leak sent water pouring down from the third floor to the center hall and living room. They took it in stride, further refining the layout, enlarging some openings here, extending a few walls there, the silver lining being more surfaces on which to display Kinder’s latest series of large-scale paintings. As new pieces appear, Boschetto puts on his gallerist hat, adding complementary decorative pillows and other accents.

Born in Queens, Kinder has been creating paintings, sculpture and works on paper for over 40 years. Fifteen years ago, he left the world of finance to focus on his art full time, taking a large studio in Williamsburg along with creating another smaller one atop the Water Mill pool house. He has had numerous one-man shows in Chelsea at the George Billis Gallery as well as two one-man shows at Sara Nightingale Gallery in Sag Harbor. His works have been exhibited at Market Art + Design-The Hamptons and Art Basel Miami, with a premier museum one-man show at Vermont’s Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in 2020. It was titled “Steven Kinder: 552,830,” the number representing the then U.S. estimated number of homeless individuals on any given night. It has risen to 582,000 in the most recent calculation.

But it’s the park-like grounds that validate the estate’s name. The couple toil endlessly on a procession of garden “rooms” with special touches that begin with arrangements of 28 oversized planters of pink hibiscus, proceeding to a koi pond surrounded by assorted pink and purple flowers leading to a formal allée of lollipop-shaped linden trees and boxwood (inspired by English gardens) followed by a grass garden. The final destination is a large growing area for several varieties of tomatoes, including the tiniest ones imaginable. Roughly the size of a currant, these “Spoon Tomatoes” are delectably sweet. Like every good Italian mama, Boschetto’s mom would make homemade Sunday “gravy” routinely. The space is poignantly called “Tootsie’s Garden” in her memory.

Both the house and gardens remain in a constant state of evolution. New paintings arrive; the décor adapts. Seasons change; the plantings are carefully timed to constantly reveal something new. The supply of flowers is so abundant that each and every room receives a fresh, homegrown bouquet on a weekly basis. While it all sounds exhausting, Boschetto and Kinder delight in the process. “It’s a labor of love for both of us,” Boschetto said. “But Steven brings an artist’s perspective to the property and uses our land as his canvas.”