About the artist:

Growing up, surrounded by Virginia’s majestic Blue Ridge Mountains, this artist believed nature’s daily display of transcending beauty to be an act as natural as the breathe of life itself. In awe of the splendor, Lois Virginia developed a passion to capture the wonder she felt when viewing God’s harmonic pageantry, whether touched by the gentle light of a morning sun or the angelic face of a child. Following the path of great artists before her, she chose the time honored tradition of oil painting, a road now traversed over forty years. The artist studied fine art at Radford University, however attributes her development of the disciplined skills needed in classical painting to years of painting experience, extensive study with master painters, and an earlier career in advertising and public relations. In 1987, while living in South Carolina, she completed a two year mentorship with master European painter, the late John S’zekes. With John’s encouragement, Lois Virginia left the business world and embarked on her life’s journey as a painter. Success came quickly with her work featured in one person shows early on. National publishers sought her work with a few fine art prints of children and animals selling twenty to fifty thousand copies. In recent years her primary focus is the creation of fine art originals. When possible, the artist prefers to paint from life in the time honored plein air and alla prima methods. She believes this is the most honest, direct way to express her feelings about a subject. Her ethereal paintings, laced with soft edges, and filled with vibrant light are reminiscent of classical turn-of-the-century masters such as John Singer Sargent. Even though Lois Virginia’s work has reached a scale of mastery, she realizes the exploration of classical painting is a life long journey and in the last five years has studied with master painters including Dan Gerhartz, Robert Johnson, Tom Browning, David Leffel, Matt Smith, C W Mundy, Margaret Baumgartner, and George Strickland. This year, a pinnacle in her career is culminating with the publication of Enduring Wisdom, an inspirational book combining her paintings with the poetry of a great American, the late Helen Steiner Rice. It is the first of a planned series to be published in cooperation with the Helen Steiner Rice Foundation. Twenty percent of all royalties will go to charity. Lois Virginia welcomes your communication. She is very grateful to those who have guided her and feels the best way to repay her debt is to help other artists. She primarily resides in her home state of Virginia, although much of her time is devoted to painting on location along the Southern US Coast and Europe.