The world of Peter Falotico, who has lived in Stony Brook with his wife Barbara for 18 years, has always been intimately linked to both the arts and education.

An award-winning educational consultant with 39 years of experience, Falotico is himself an artist who has exhibited his work widely. He also collects art  and for the past 40 years has nurtured a passion for impressionist artist William Starkweather, who worked in the early part of the 20th century.

Falotico has loaned his collection of paintings and memorabilia to the Art League of Long Island. Starkweather was known for his oil paintings and his watercolors, and 35 works spanning the time period 1905 to 1961 are on display.

"Inside and Out: The Landscapes and Interiors of William Starkweather" is the first solo exhibit of late artist's work in the New York area in 22 years, and news of the opening, which took place on Friday, attracted a standing-room-only crowd of art lovers from across Long Island.

Tom Stacey, Executive Director of the Art League, who introduced Falotico, said that he and Pat Ralph, Chair of the Exhibition Committee, were overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of Falotico's collection and immediately knew that they had the makings of a major exhibit.

As Falotico spoke of the achievements of Starkweather, whose paintings are part of the collections of the country's most prestigious museums, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the San Diego Museum of Art, guests were surprised to learn that Falotico had actually met the subject of his fascination.

His journey started at Smith's Diner in Manhattan when he was just a teen.

"My father took me to lunch with an artist nicknamed Starky, a very old man, with a patch over one eye," Falotico recalled.

He said his father, an antiques appraiser for a Manhattan gallery, collected art and purchased a group of Starkweather paintings in 1962. These paintings, which Falotico inherited when his father passed away in 1968, became the cornerstones of his present collection and fueled his curiosity to know more.

"Over the last 40 years, I have tried to piece together his life and his paintings," said Falotico, who is a collaborator on a book-in-progress about the artist's life and works, to be published in 2012. "Starkweather was prolific and probably created more than 4,000 oil and watercolor paintings. People from all over the United States have contacted me about their Starkweather paintings or have told me stories about Starkweather."

Remarkable examples of Starkweather's work on display include "Spanish Boy," which Falotico believes that the artist painted as he worked alongside the great Spanish Impressionist, Joaquin Sorolla, with whom he studied  for three years. Also remarkable is "Fantasy on a Leonardo Theme," a symbolic work which is believed to have been Starkweather's last painting.

The Starkweather exhibit will be displayed through August 15 in the Art League's Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery, 107 E. Deer Park Rd, Dix Hills. For more information, call 462-5400 or visit www.artleagueli.net.