The Unveiling of Upperville

"Upperville, Virginia in the Piedmont Valley", Peter's newest addition to his collection of original oil works of historic towns in Northern Virginia.  I think he does the town proud!

It's been a while since my husband Peter, whom I affectionately call "P.Lorenz" when he is in one of his many creative modes that include painting, designing a garden, building something, sitting around playing Scrabble on his Android phone or even yelling at the television while watching his favorite team win or lose to an opponent ("COME ON, PURDUE!"), has completed another painting of one of the historic towns we are lucky enough to live near, here in Northern Virginia.  At last, after many a Sunday afternoon coupled with after-work weekday-nights of painting a new scene spread over the last year, he has finally completed one more artistic interpretation to add to the P.Lorenz Original Oil Painting Collection of Towns and Hamlets of Northern Virginia.  This new scene is his depiction of Upperville, a Virginia town, founded in 1790 and nestled in the Piedmont Valley with a rich history.

This painting of the First Presbyterian Church in Wheaton, Illinois
was one of the first Peter did when we were first married,
back in the early 1980's, while he was still in college.
He painted it on an old bread board that once belonged to
 his (Quaker) grandmother.  It is still is one of
my favorites because we were married in that church.

Another scene that graced the walls of our tiny apartment
during married student housing days. Peter painted this on old
lath board he nailed together.

Peter is a landscape architect by education and training and I remember, as it seems a lifetime ago, living in married student housing at Purdue University where Peter started honing his skill as an artist. We looked at white-washed cinder block walls that needed something, anything really, to hide the boredom and plainness of those walls, and at the same time, would not break the bank of a newlywed couple who depended on my retail management trainee's monthly salary.  Trust me when I say it barely covered the rent and food at the time.  Peter, well let's just call him P.Lorenz for the sake of argument, started hanging his architectural projects and artwork on the walls--much better! Even me, a perennial "neat-nick", thought they nicely complimented our wedding china, brightened up the hand-me-down furniture and softened the stark white walls.

Getting back into the swing of things, in 2011, after an over 20 year painting hiatus, he painted "Beautiful Philomont, Virginia", the lovely little Western Loudoun hamlet we live in today.  Peter painted the original on an old bread board as well and then donated the painting to our son's (who is now almost 25 years old) elementary school when he was in fourth grade for a school fundraiser.  This is the one of the few originals we no longer own but the owners who bought the painting were kind enough to lend us the picture so we could take pictures of it and sell it as prints.  My sister, his brother and a couple of lucky neighbors own original work by P.Lorenz as well.

Then, the demands of graduation, job hunting, moving halfway across the country, jobs, houses, more moving, house renovations, house buildings, children and jobs (I think I said that already) turned his attentions to all of these things so, "picture painting" was wholly forgotten for many years. However, somewhere around year 21 of our marriage, Peter started painting again and rediscovered a long "on-hold" passion and outlet for his creativity.  The rest is history.

So today, we proudly unveil P.Lorenz's latest work of an historic, Northern Virginia town called "Upperville, Virginia in the Piedmont Valley" and add this to his body of other works, that include his renditions of the following Northern Virginia towns; Philomont, Bluemont, Lincoln, Purcellville, Middleburg and Leesburg.  Now, on to the next conquest--Hillsboro, Virginia--coming soon, hopefully.

Note:  For a complete viewing of Peter's artwork offered for sale as either color prints or stationary, go to bloominghillva.com. 

One of my favorites by Peter a.k.a P. Lorenz, "Bountiful Purcellville, Virginia".