Priscilla Coote has been mesmerized by the water for her entire life. There are family tales of their near-capsizing during a sudden squall when she was an infant; followed by more tales of living aboard and 39-day motorsailor deliveries down the East Coast.
Priscilla has been called a Tonalist in a Colorist world. A New Englander by birth, she has spent the last twenty-plus years in the Florida Keys, with its blinding sunlight and saturated hues. She has found reconciliation between these polar opposites of imagery into her own style only after years of diligently painting en plein air in both North and South, and then carrying her inspirations into the studio. She has made a lifelong study of how the placement and intensity of light and dark areas within a painting create its mood and atmosphere. She will sometimes emphasize rather than minimize the distortions of the camera. Vignetting, lens flare and color shifts are favorite tools of hers, and quite useful in the creation of mood. In addition, she is a serious student of the anatomy of water itself, delighting in how the careful rendering of even a mere ripple can make a successful painting.
Predominantly taught by nature, today Priscilla participates in selected plein air events with nationally-ranked artists and exhibits her studio oil paintings in Key West, Nantucket, Williamsburg and with a group of French artists in Nantes.