Key West Florida Weekly

Priscilla Coote’s ‘Afternoon in Paradise’ opens Feb. 3 at the Gallery on Greene



 

Priscilla Coote’s work continues to evolve in fascinating ways. As a result of the extremes of this year, her evolution was catalyzed by several experiences, which she is still integrating into her newest work.

Her palette was deepened by plein air work in northern England and France. She learned a new vocabulary of brushwork as a result of several days among the top marine painters in the country and their gift of new paint brushes. And of course, living in ground zero of a Category 4 hurricane has affected her forever.

“We were quite fortunate to still have our home,” she says, “but so much has been stripped away. I lost several paintings and the use of my studio for three months. Yet it has been enormously freeing, allowing me to focus on what is truly important.”

 

What emerges as important to her is the precious time she spent, in the months prior to the storm, documenting the natural world around her. She was driven to paint her surroundings en plein air even in the blazing Keys summer, little knowing what was to follow in September. With the help of a friend and happy coincidence, she built The Amphibious, an easel equipped to actually take her painting experience into the water. She spent summer days yards offshore on the sandbars, in knee-deep water, painting the fresh viewpoint of looking from the water toward the land. She also snorkeled with an underwater camera, studying the shoreline viewpoint from within the waves themselves.

What you can witness here in her most recent work is Priscilla’s heartfelt interpretation of those summer days mingled with years of cumulative study of this part of paradise, some of which no longer existed after September of 2017.

Priscilla is a signature member of the American Society of Marine Artists, had paintings shown recently on HGTV, has been published in national magazines and has exhibited in several prominent national shows during the past year. ¦

The Gallery on Greene 606 Greene St. 305- 294- 1669 www.galleryongreene.com

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