When the light hits just right, Leanne Moss sees what others often miss.
A gas station in Ivor recently grabbed her eye, as did a combine harvesting a cotton field. Sometimes it’s the unspoiled marshland near Windsor Castle Park or along Ragged Island in Carrollton. The majestic pecan tree that’s stood for more than 100 years in her side yard continues to draw her in with its beauty and grandiose size. It shades a portion of the lane that leads to the two-story farmhouse from the 1890s that once belonged to her great-grandparents she now shares with her husband, Danny, and three rescue kitties.
Moss is a painter who enjoys capturing the light and the love among the rural surroundings she grew up with. The Smithfield native will be one of 125 artists participating in the 40th Annual Stockley Gardens Spring Arts Festival in Ghent May 18 and 19. The festival benefits Hope House, which supports adults with intellectual disabilities.
“For better or for worse, Isle of Wight County is growing really fast,” Moss said. “It’s sad to see all these farms turning into development and warehouses or in Smithfield, these old historic homes or farms getting turned into cookie-cutter neighborhoods. There’s a lot of families who have been in this county for a long time. I like the idea of documenting stuff that isn’t going to be here forever.”
Moss studied art at Marymount University, but it wasn’t until the pandemic forced her to postpone her April 2020 wedding that she began to paint oils consistently.
“I was at home a lot, we had a garden growing and I was working hybrid-remote,” she said. “I got a little stir-crazy.”
By the end of the year, Moss began thinking of art as a business and started exhibiting at local shows. She sold her first painting, “Sunset on the Pagan,” to someone other than a family member in 2021 at the Neptune Festival, her first juried show.
“It was very validating,” she said.
The following year, Moss placed third at Stockley Gardens’ fall show in what she remembers as “a huge moment.” Her work is particularly distinct when surrounded by that of other Hampton Roads artists, who frequently showcase the beachy coast and water native to the area.
“I paint farmland,” Moss said. “My paintings aren’t shiny or slick or modern. It’s a quiet subject matter. I stick with what’s around me.”
She’s surrounded by green — 207 acres of trees along with silos and outbuildings, including a smokehouse her uncle uses to cure meat. A walk around the property serves as her muse as does driving around the back roads of the county.
Moss snaps reference photos when scouting and her potential subject comes to life in her modest upstairs studio. That’s where she paints alla prima, or wet on wet, sometimes finishing an entire painting in as little as five hours. The result is a culmination of months of planning.
“I’ll think about a piece for maybe a month or two,” Moss said. “Once I get a concept, I’ll wait until the light is perfect. I’ll pass somewhere 100 times, like the gas station that is for sale in Ivor on Route 460 that’s just so interesting in the morning light.”
Moss keeps her studio silent to focus on the 1,000 decisions swirling in her head — what color, what value, what edge, what kind of brush. She’s decided on all of them by the time she puts brush to canvas.
If a cat wanders in while she works, it’s probably her tiger-colored tabby Smitten, whom she nearly lost to chronic kidney disease. Refusing to accept a dire diagnosis, she’s spent the spring toting him to appointments in Richmond and at N.C. State for treatment to save his life.
A spontaneous online sale recently offset his thousands of dollars in medical expenses. Proceeds from Stockley Gardens will continue to add pay for Smitten’s care.
“I call him my million-dollar baby,” Moss said.
Stockley Gardens Spring Arts Festivalis at 715 Stockley Gardens in Norfolk on Saturday, May 18, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, May 19, from noon-5 p.m.
