Patricia Buckley Moss—1933-2024
The prolific artist championed education for kids with dyslexia
Patricia Buckley Moss, who was a strong advocate for individuals with learning disabilities and arts education, died 13 July 2024 in Mathews County, Virginia. As an artist, Ms. Moss was renowned for paintings of scenes and people from rural life, often focusing on simplicity in both subjects (she frequently featured Amish and Mennonite farmers) and presentations. She championed education, especially arts education, for individuals with dyslexia, by giving free talks and by establishing and helping fund initiatives such as P. Buckley Moss Society, the P. Buckley Moss Foundation for Children's Education, and the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech.
Born 20 May 1933 on Staten Island, New York, Ms. Moss persevered through school despite having learning disabilities. With a focus on her artistic skills, she enrolled in Washington Irving School1 and then graduated from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. After living in New York and elsewhere, she moved to Virginia and became a resident in the Shenandoah Valley area. Later she also maintained residences in Florida and at her daughter’s in Virginia’s Mathews County on the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia. The accompanying video recounted her life (note that along with actual family photos, it includes dramatizations).
Ms. Moss’s paintings—she also drew and etched and she illustrated children’s books—have frequently been reproduced and sold widely throughout the US and around the world. Although critics might characterize her work as “folk art,” the paintings and prints are a source of near fervent interest among many people. According to Stan Horst (2010), a commentator from the area in Virginia where Ms. Moss kept her home gallery and museum, people who see the work are likely to find themselves “drawn into the story that each painting tells. These images of kids playing in the snow, riding a carousel horse, pulling a sleigh, or building a snowman are all scenes from a simpler life that every one of us can imagine, even if we’ve not experienced such tranquility recently.”
The Internet is chocked full of Web pages and other sources of information about Ms. Moss. Simply searching on her name—although she was know as “Pat,” use her professional name, “P. Buckley Moss”—will return 1000s of links. One of the most important points to her eponymous site, P. Buckley Moss, but it’s easy to find others including those featuring her philanthropic work to which I linked in earlier paragraphs.
Ms. Moss is survived by her second husband, five of her six children, and at least 10 grandchildren. Local newspapers Augusta (Gragan, 2024) and Roanoke (Gangloff, 2024) and as well as Virginia Tech noted her passing. Faulkner Funeral Homes published an obituary.
I only had the opportunity to talk with Ms. Moss once. She, Reid Lyon, and I were all members of a panel presentation about learning disabilities that was held at a Charlottesville school. She was charming. She spoke with ease and answered questions honestly. People loved her.
Update 13 October 2024:
The News Virginian carried reporter Bob Stuart’s story, “Late artist P. Buckley Moss honored at memorial outside Waynesboro (paywalled). It is also available in other sources (they might be paywalled, too) under the same title. Here’s his lede:
Family, friends and fans of Patricia Buckley Moss held a memorial for the late artist Thursday afternoon at the Barn, Moss' residence outside Waynesboro.
Moss, known by her signature P. Buckley Moss, was a commercial and philanthropic behemoth by the time she died this past July at the age of 91 shortly after doctors discovered a suspected glioblastoma, or brain tumor.
Sources
Gangloff, M. (2024). Called ‘the people’s artist,’ P. Buckley Moss painted until the end. Roanoke Times, 18 July 2024. https://roanoke.com/news/local/artist-and-philanthropist-patricia-buckley-moss-dies-at-91/article_b33d286a-437f-11ef-9f93-d3f7537be90b.html [If you can’t read this version, it was reprinted in the Charlottesville Daily Progress here]
Gragan, C. (2024). Artist, philanthropist P. Buckley Moss dies; legacy lives on through art, education. August Free Press, 15 July, 2024. https://augustafreepress.com/news/artist-philanthropist-p-buckley-moss-dies-legacy-lives-on-through-art-education/
Horst, S. (2010). P. Buckley Moss—The art, the museum, and the foundation. August Free Press, 9 November 2010. https://augustafreepress.com/news/stan-horst-p-buckley-moss-the-art-the-museum-and-the-foundation/
McGuire, T. (1998). Portrait of the artist as a philanthropist. Virginia Tech Magazine, 20(4). https://archive.vtmag.vt.edu/sum98/philanthropy.html
Now the Washington Irving School for Fine Arts (or just “the Washington Irving Campus), the school restricted enrollment to girls during the first half of the 20th century and encouraged study of fine arts.