copies of the book that Susan MacNelly recently published.

copies of the book that Susan MacNelly recently published.

Don’t leave Washington without stopping at what was once an 18th Century livery stable. For the last eight years, The Packing Shed Gallery located on the comer of Gay and Porter Streets has been a lively gallery featuring the works of local and regional artists in a variety of mediums and styles. Not only will the works of codirectors June Jordan and Etlan artist T\icker Hill be featured but that of Rick Meyers, James Conaway, Franeie Schroeder and recently featured printmaker Viviane DeKosinsky with her elaborately etched and colorful fanciful scenes.

Not far out of the Tbwn of Washington at 242 Tiger Valley Road is the home of artist Nancy Keyser. Sitting on 8 acres of rolling pasture land, Keyser has designed her living room/studio for the optimum view of the surrounding hills. With autumn still in its heyday, the distant mountains are their own painting with clumps of brilliant yellows and oranges splotched against a limy green background. Occasionally there will be a splash of red.

Keyser’s paintings mirror her environs. Working in watercolor, Keyser’s ' softly stroked scenes are lush with color, shadows and subtleties of shape. Her fondness for farm life is apparent in her collection of roosters, pigs, old bams and fields of wildflowers. One painting of a vase of flowers is so brilliant and lavish and of such scale that you want to pick it up and place it on your dining room table or hutch.

While making her permanent home in Rappahannock for the last five years, Keyser is no stranger to the county. “This all used to be part of a larger farm, there were apple orchards,” said Keyser who visited off and on for years as her husband’s family had lived there for generations. Now, with the help of her builder son, Keyser has turned a once small rambler into a spacious area that affords her plenty of blissful mornings and afternoons for painting.