Ramey Landscapes
Biography:
A native of Alexandria, Virginia, I began painting as a youngster, receiving instruction and encouragement in grade school. I moved to the Somerset area in Central Virginia as a teenager, attending Orange County High School, and later returned to the area after completing my pharmacy studies at the University of Virginia and the Medical College of Virginia. After completing my pharmaceutical studies, I resumed my passion for painting. Through private studies with Bill Sullivan, I have received my artistic instructions by attending art classes at Piedmont Community College, many painting workshops throughout Virginia, and art instructions with Ron Boehmer at the Beverley Street Studio School Stanton, Virginia
Over the past 30 years, I have entered many painting competitions and participated in many Central Virginia exhibitions. My works can be seen at the Dogwood Village in Orange, Virginia, the Orange Art Center, The Loft Art and Craft Shop in Culpeper, and Premier Virginia Real estate office in Gordonsville, Virginia.
ramey@rameylandscapes.com
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Artist Statement:
I am a traditional landscape painter living in Gordonsville, Virginia, a very rural and beautiful Central Virginia area. I paint quiet places visited by few people far away from the highway. My subjects are found on nearby farms, rivers, ponds, and streams, mainly in the Rapidan River Valley in the Somerset area, Central Virginia, Shenandoah Valley, and the coastal regions of Virginia and the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Most of the places are within walking distance from my studio. From an early love of fine art initially cultivated as a youngster making frequent trips to the National Gallery and the Museum of American Art, I am deeply influenced by the French and American Impressionists. From a family of farmers who viewed this land daily, my connection with this area is a continuous affinity in my own life. I feel compelled to capture my love of this area before it is lost to shopping centers and development.
Most of my work is oil on canvas and occasionally pastel. My method is first to wander the countryside to search for a suitable subject, at which time I will explore many compositional possibilities of the subject photographically. Once a composition has been conceived, I will return to this landscape later, beginning the composition in Plein air and then completing it in the studio. I often continue with a series of paintings altering it by the time of the day, by season, or by atmospheric conditions.
In my art, I paint with the changing seasons, and I attempt to capture a feeling so that the viewer can experience a similar sense of place, time, and atmosphere conditions. My goal in my landscapes is to reproduce a pleasing, artistic image from direct observation of nature. Ever a constant student, I continue to perfect my art through observation, experience, trial and error, study, and instruction. Plein air painters from late 19th century France and early 20th-century American painters have greatly influenced my vision, such as William Chase, Willard Metcalf, Robinson, Rose, and many others.
ramey@rameylandscapes.com
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