Photography by Megan Mumford
When I visited Drayton Patriota and Daniel Reilly’s 1979 ranch on Saratoga’s East Side in June, Drayton, an architect and artist, was in the middle of painting a lawn jockey for the couple’s front steps. “He’s not going to have white pants,” the Brazil native said. “He’s going to have an outfit.”
This was my first clue that, when it comes to their home, Drayton and Daniel don’t play by anyone else’s rules.
As Drayton led me through the house, he mainly pointed out pieces of artwork: a photograph his nephew took of Brazil’s Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, a herd of concrete and ceramic horse figurines Drayton sculpted, a photograph Alan Cumming took at Liza Minelli’s birthday party, a framed indigenous headpiece the couple bought off the head of a man in Brazil, a painting Drayton made for Daniel of the Saratoga skyline as seen from the couple’s old apartment in The Algonquin, a cut-paper piece Drayton made for Daniel after learning the word “murmuration,” a collage depicting Daniel that Drayton, yes, made for Daniel.
“Everything is for him,” Drayton said of his husband, a psychiatrist from Niskayuna. “He’s lucky.”
If the living room is defined by colorful, man-made beauty—think songbird figurines by the Danish designer Kay Bojesen, orange Arne Jacobsen floor lamps, and a glass-topped Noguchi coffee table—the dining room is dedicated to the beauty of the natural world.
“We wanted to take advantage of the south-facing windows, and we love plants,” Drayton said. “It occurred to me that I should make a fig tree forest.”
Now, towering fig trees, their branches held up by invisible fishing line, surround the Eero Saarinen Tulip Table, because, why not? The only thing missing from the forest, Drayton discerned, was toucans. So, he painted “Spying Toucans.” If you look closely, the blue-glass bottles of Saratoga Water on a bar tray beneath the work are topped with wicker hats made by a Brazilian artisan the couple met on a trip.
A week after my visit, Drayton emailed me a photo. It was their lawn jockey, Gary, dressed in what looks like a retro one-piece ski suit rolled into capris. And he has a beard.
