P Buckley Moss - Watercolor - Apple Picking Time -1969

This auction is for an original P. Buckley Moss Watercolor painting created in 1969.  The painting is signed both on the painting (at right of tree base), and also on the frame glass.  This piece has been located with a private collector since its purchase.  The work has been recognized by the P. Buckley Moss Museum as an original, and has been added to their Object Catalog, with an ID # of 96.00222.  The following description was provided by the museum, and the biography that follows is courtesy of Wikipedia.org . 

Apple Picking Time depicts a figurative orchard scene created in Pat’s early “Valley Style”. A young plain girl and woman appear in the foreground. The woman is carrying a basket of sticks, a symbol for fertility. The young girl is carrying a lifelike doll; its arms outstretched. A Man is carrying a large ladder among the apple trees. A girl is carrying a large basket of apples (mid-ground) beneath the trees. A cluster of several black trees with foliage and fruit, dot the landscape. A black barn, an important architectural element in what was a thriving agricultural community in the Shenandoah Valley, appears on a distant horizon. The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia has had a tremendous influence on the artist and her “Valley Style”. In 1964 Pat came to Virginia with her husband, Jack Moss and became part of the community. The influence of the valley and the people are still evident in Pat’s work today.

The plain people in Moss art represent goodness, a traditional lifestyle, a strong work ethic and a devotion to faith and family. The apples in a basket also represent the fruits of labor and a life well lived, and hard work. Pat says she likes to “Paint things that go up” This work has a vertical format as many of pats images do even today. This is an early figurative "Valley Style" work.

P. Buckley Moss was born on May 20, 1933 on Staten Island in New York City. She attended Washington Irving High School for the Fine Arts in Manhattan. In what turned out to be quite ironic in light of her later career, she was voted "Least Likely to Succeed" by the students of her high school. She continued on to study art at Cooper Union. Soon after graduating in 1955, she married a chemical engineer named Jack Moss.
In 1964, Jack's work took Pat and her five-going-on-six children to Waynesboro, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. Appreciating the rural scenery, she began using it in her art. She was particularly drawn to the Amish and Mennonite people she observed across the countryside. Selling out a one-person museum exhibition in 1967, she started to market her work more seriously. The subtle stylings and calming nature of her work drew widespread acclaim, and her art garnered the interest of collectors across Europe and Japan.
The P. Buckley Moss Museum opened in Waynesboro, Virginia in 1989. It has grown to attract roughly 45,000 visitors each year. In 1995, the P. Buckley Moss Foundation for Children's Education was created to aid children with learning disabilities. In the marketing of her artwork and her museum, Moss is called "The People's Artist".

P. Buckley Moss. (2007, June 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:11, June 24, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=P._Buckley_Moss&oldid=137655771