A new documentary film, “Like Notes of Music: Christian Peltenburg-Brechneff, The Landscape Painter” makes its U.S. debut at Old Saybrook’s Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center on Sept. 8.

The 50-minute film features the artist painting in locations throughout the world including his Hadlyme studio on the Connecticut River and in the equally small town of Engadin in the Swiss Alps. It also goes back with Brechneff, now 66 years old, to the Greek Island of Sifnos where he lived as a young artist and painted for the next 30 years, and is the inspiration for his book, “The Greek House.” The documentary concludes with his marriage to Tim Lovejoy, also a painter, and his partner of 37 years, at their 280-year-old house in Hadlyme.

After the local premiere, the documentary by Magee Film Productions will go on to private screenings in New York City, as well as Basel and Zurich, Switzerland. It will then be submitted to international film festivals.

Brechneff talks about “Like Notes of Music” and how it came to be in the following Day interview from his Hadlyme home.

Q. Why and how did the film come together and at this particular time in your life?

A. This film to me is like a gift. I had nothing to do with it per se. I was invited to a dinner in Switzerland by old friends and patrons. They said, you’ll really enjoy meeting these (other guests) and they love Scottish terriers (as I do). We talked and had a very nice time and during the dinner they also told me that they make films. At the end of dinner, he (Michael Magee) told me, ‘I really like your voice, I really like your story, I want to read your book, and I’d consider making a documentary about your work and your life. I gave him my card, and didn’t really think about it too much. Two months later, I got an email from him that they raised the money to make this film and had already started filming in Switzerland and were coming to the U.S.

Q. Did you have a lot of input?

A. I said I only had one condition for the film. I wanted our wedding to be in it. I knew a lot of people had read about, knew about, but had never been to, a gay wedding. I said, ‘If you come in October, we have to film our wedding. We hadn’t even set a date yet! It was 2013 — the gay marriage act was passed that year. He said, ‘Sure.’ And then Tim and I went crazy organizing the wedding. They spent 72 hours filming around Hadlyme and in my studio, (in addition to) the wedding.

Q. Why did you decide to make the premiere a benefit for the Lyme Academy College of Art?

Because first, I love Lyme Academy. I’ve supported the school since we moved here in 1989. I was able to go to a great art school, The Royal College of Art in London, and I know what it means for a student to attend a school like this. It makes you ambitious, teaches you how to focus, to fight for your own forms, to have tutorials with famous artists, like I did.

Q. Tell us about the title, “Like Notes of Music.”

A. I listen to opera and classical music, and also lot of piano and always quite loud, when I’m working. When I’m talking about drawing, putting marks on the paper, I say it’s like I’m a conductor, like notes of music.

Q. You’ve always made your living as a painter. You say you feel lucky to have a group of collectors to support you. It sounds like you never take it for granted that you have been able to live your life doing what you love: making art. Is that true?

A. I feel completely privileged the way my life turned out. My family wasn’t rich. They supported me morally, which is sometimes more important than financially. I was tremendously lucky I had these parents. I wanted them to be proud of me. Maybe because I was gay and I was different and different from my (siblings). I was very privileged to go to the Royal College of Art because of my portfolio. I was able to always sell myself quite well. I’m not famous. The film is just about an artist who lived his life, and actually a wonderful life.

Q. The film takes us all over the world, to so many dramatically different landscapes that you’ve painted. You’ve done studies of sunsets and sunrises all over the globe. Has seeing/living in all these places had a big impact on your work?

A. I think so. Travel is a way to expand your mind. Travel is incredibly important. I’ve always had this curiosity, this hunger for different horizons.

Q. You say you love working outdoors, drawing on location. Why?

A. I’ve been told that’s what I’m really good at. When you look at a mountain, a model, a sunset, or even a still life in the studio, something happens from the brain to your arm to your hand that holds the brush, and the best drawings are the ones when you don’t even look at the page, you just look at what you’re looking at and something extraordinary happens. It also brings you to locations where people open their houses. A woman in East Hampton had a gorgeous house right on the beach and she invited me to paint there. The ambassador of Switzerland to Sri Lanka invited me to paint the gardens there in the 1990s — it was extraordinarily beautiful.

Q. In the film you talk about where your art lives once it leaves your studio or a gallery wall. Why is it important to you to see how your art becomes a part of people’s lives?

A. There is an element of power there. You’re present in their lives 24-7. Some of the collectors will proudly show me over a dinner or send me photographs of where the paintings end up. These paintings are with me; they talk to me. I really live with that art, so, it’s almost the most satisfying thing about my job — people sharing with me how these paintings live that I’ve painted.

Q. The film is a real education into your process as an artist — your technique, choice of subject matter, mediums, emotional connections. Was that your intent?

A. It was the filmmaker’s intent. He interviewed me over three years. I was used, but in a brilliant way. I was honest and totally spontaneous. There is not one scripted line in this film.

Q. How did you react when you saw the film for the first time?

A. I cried for an hour. It was very emotional. I’ve never been so nervous in my life as when I stepped off the plane to go to the studio in Zurich. They could have completely screwed it up but did incredibly beautiful work. I think it allows the viewer to (fully) enter the artist’s world without overstepping a level of privacy. Every door around me has been open to the viewer, which creates a very intimate portrait of this person and what he thinks and feels.

IF YOU GO

What: U.S. premiere and limited seating screening of “Like Notes of Music: Christian Peltenburg-Brechneff, The Landscape Painter”; reception will follow at The Cooley Gallery, 25 Lyme St., Old Lyme, from 6:45 to 8 p.m.

When: Thursday, Sept. 8; 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Where: The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook

Cost: Tickets for screening and reception are $40; proceeds benefit Center for Arts Programming, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, University of New Haven. To purchase tickets in advance visit katharinehepburntheater.org or call (877) 503-1286.