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By THERESA REYNOLDS
Rap|»alumiMK*k Mrwft Staff Writrr
With the recent opening of Albright’s Art Studio in the, Clopton House in Washington, Margery Albright is realizing a dream that has eluded her for years.
Although she has worked on and off as an artist for 25 years, she has never had a studio of her own or enough time to paint everyday.
Like many women, Albright realized when she turned 35 that the time was now or never to pursue a serious career. “I’d been busy raising my family, fiddling around with art but lacking the time to really study and paint every day. I thought: my life is really half over now and I’d better get moving,” she said.
She studied at the Corcoran in Washington, D. C., under Thomas Downing and took lessons for four years in Fairfax with Marcus Blahov. When her husband’s illness forced him to retire, they moved to Rappahannock County where they lived in Gid Brown Hollow. Here, Albright studied under local artist Joy Luke. “Mrs. Luke was really a big influence on me,” she said. “Those who know both of our work can see it in my colors.” Just as her art work was developing here, her husband took a turn for the worse, forcing the Albrights to return to the Washington area for closer medical attention. The emotional and physical demands of the long illness didn’t leave her a lot of time for painting or anything else.
On Albright’s studio wall hangs a painting of a peacock, each little detail of color and shape painstakingly constructed out of tiny colored squares.
“This painting took a full year,” Albright said. “I’d work on it at night after coming home from seeing my husband. I think it was therapeutic for me to have something so tedious to do.”
Her husband’s death prompted another move, back to the mountains that she had loved.
Right now, Albright lives in Amissville and commutes to her studio, but she is hoping to set up a home studio combination here in town. Her future quarters will be across the street from the Clopton House in the old house that Peter Kramer moved to his lot on Main Street.
Albright hopes that, with the addition of some bay windows and other refurbishing, the house will be a perfect spot for painting and living. “That way I can stay open late for those tourists who want to walk around town at night, when it’s cool,” she said.
Right now, her cozy basement studio in the Clopton House with brick floor and beamed ceiling seems a perfect background for her colorful paintings. Albright has been working on the “Albright style”, a whimsical mixture of modem and realistic art that demands a great deal of sketching and color coordination.
To construct a picture in the Albright style, she first makes live sketches of the elements that she wants to incorporate into the painting. All of her paintings are based
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