The Light Dances in Christine Lashley’s New Impressionistic Paintings of Old Town Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA – “We love it when our beautiful Old Town becomes the star of a painting!” exclaims Clint Mansell, Director at Principle Gallery, 208 King Street, in Alexandria, Virginia, regarding three new paintings by Christine Lashley available for sale in his gallery.

Lashley, a local contemporary impressionist painter, has released three new paintings highlighting holiday street scenes in Old Town Alexandria, that make the lights dance from the lamp posts to the shop interiors to the glowing white orbs in the decorated trees.

The light is the star in scenes that include a view of King Street depicting people walking near shops warmly aglow, a landscape of the glistening Christmas tree in front of City Hall in Market Square, and a keen representation of holiday shoppers window shopping in front of a typical townhouse storefront.

Christine Lashley gathers most of her ideas by painting outdoors. The art she creates on location or in the studio is about the beauty of a moment held in memory. Her paintings often fuse reality and the abstract, using color and texture to look realistic from afar but dissolve into abstraction up close.

Christine Lashley has been involved in the arts all her life, with early years sketching outdoors and watching her mother and grandmother create sculpture. She spent several years in the high fashion world of Europe, and then worked in graphic design and creating murals. She began painting professionally with watercolors but moved to oils in 2009.

Her work has won numerous awards, including Best of Show for both landscape and portrait work. Recent awards were the ARC Salon (Plein Air), Bold Brush Award (June 2020), Best Landscape at the 27th Oil Painters of America National Show, and Best of Show at Telluride Plein Air and Bath County Plein Air. Christine’s work has been featured in many articles, publications and media, including two art-instruction DVDs released by Liliedahl, and the cover of Plein Air Magazine.

With a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and prior study at the Sorbonne and Parsons in Paris; Christine continued her art education with workshops from prominent artists including Scott Christensen, with whom she is currently doing an online Beyond the Easel Webinar project (a series of interactive artistic conversations).

Christine has taught US and international workshops for over 20 years and is a Signature Member of: Oil Painters of America (OPA), Plein Air Painters of the Southeast (PAP-SE), Salmagundi NYC, and the Washington Society of Landscape Painters.

“They’re a perfect gift option for yourself, local friends or family, and those who no longer live in Old Town, but have fond memories,” adds Mansell.

For inquiries, please send an email to [email protected].