Photo of the artist by Jen Fariello
Priscilla Whitlock
@priscillawhitlockstudio | priscillalongwhitlock.com
Priscilla Long Whitlock is a painter who lives and works in Albemarle County, Va. Her paintings and handmade prints are based on nature. Most recently she completed a print making residency in Venice, Italy. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Bodie Island and Buxton, NC, Acadia National Park, Maine and Les Amis du Grande Vigne, Dinan, France as well as the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Truro Center for the Arts in Cape Cod.
Her work was chosen for the U.S. Ambassador’s residence at Riga, Latvia, through the Art in Embassies Program. She has taught workshops for galleries and juried shows in Virginia and taught as a faculty member at Beverley Street Studio School, in Staunton, Va. An award winning participant in juried plein air events, she competed in Norfolk, VA, Easton, MD, Cumberland, MD, Annapolis, MD, Lexington, VA, Wayne, PA, Bath County, VA, and Curacao International Invitational.
She has exhibited nationally and abroad and her paintings are in private and public collections, including medical facilities in our southern and midAtlantic states. One of five female artists, Ms. Whitlock was invited by Kristen Chiacchia and LYDM, to participate in “Lady Painters”, a show centered on the work of artist Joan Mitchell, at Second Street Gallery.
Pink and White Phlox, view from my studio, 2025
Oil on canvas
30 x 30
How My Garden Grows, 2024
Oil on canvas
30 × 40 inches
Hydrangeas, Shade, 2025
Oil on canvas
30 x 30
Late Summer, Blooms, 2025
Oil on canvas
24 × 30 inches
Artist Statement
My studio is in my home, in a neighborhood in Albemarle County, Virginia. Windows look out on my yard, some woods and a lake at the bottom of the hill. A narrow winding road into town reveals glimpses of wild fields, mountains, and skies. Friends and farmers let me wander, stand, paint.
I love this direct connection to nature; listening to the birds, watching the sunset, feeling the wind, and watching the bees wake up in my garden. Enriching visual memory, this absorption/distillation allows the next painting to draw on the experience. For years I painted on location and have catalogued these memories giving me the freedom to start painting in a field, or completely realize a piece in the studio.
Bringing the viewer into the painting, much of this work sacrifices deep space. Standing together, we are in the field, shoulder to shoulder. Without a horizon line the pictures become expressionistic and abstract. We’re allowed to fall in love with the color and movement across the landscape and let the fat blobs of oil, swishes of paint and scratches mark the canvas. It is my hope to convey the joy of being and translate the beauty we witness into the language of paint.
My most recent artist residency was working as a printmaker at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venezia, Italy. Please visit priscillawhitlock.com for any further information.
Browse available work by Priscilla Whitlock HERE.