Staff writer Ralph Berrier Jr. gives us this snapshot of an appearance the beloved Virginia artist made in Buchanan on Sunday.

P. Buckley Moss’ work is ‘art from the heart’
Artist P. Buckley Moss has fans who are devoted to her and love her colorful renderings of Virginia life, landmarks and colleges.
By Ralph Berrier Jr.

BUCHANAN — Not even the death of a beloved older sister could tear P. Buckley Moss away from her adoring fans.

Early during her appearance at the Apple Barn Galley in Buchanan on Sunday, the popular and prolific Virginia artist learned by telephone that her sister, Mary Elizabeth, had died in Texas after several years of having Alzheimer’s disease.

People were lined up by the dozens to meet Moss and have them sign copies of her prints, so she stayed to sign them all for more than four hours.

“She would have expected me to,” Moss said later. “She would have said, ‘Pat, don’t be ridiculous.’ It was actually a blessing for her to die. I love my sister and her husband. They’re good, good people.”

She never let on as she posed for pictures, cracked jokes and signed hundreds of framed prints. That’s devotion. Moss and her fans have it for one another.

“You are so beautiful,” one of her fans gushed.

“You’ve got the Irish tongue,” Moss retorted.

People are wild about Moss, the Waynesboro artist whom friends know by her first name, Pat. For more than 40 years, Moss has been famous for her colorful renderings of rural Virginia life, especially the Mennonite communities she met in the Shenandoah Valley.

Click here to read the rest of the story.