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Virginia Woolley
(1884-1971)
Virginia Woolley was born on August 27, 1884, in Selma, Alabama. She had three siblings: Frances (Woolley) Farmer, and James Albert Woolley, Jr., and Andrew Price Woolley. She studied art in Chicago, then later abroad, chiefly in Paris.
She made a living by working in the Knox Leidy Pottery factory in Laguna Beach. On Sundays, she and other local artists displayed their paintings in Heisman Park. She was instrumental in forming the basis of what was to become the Annual Festival of Arts. In today's Laguna Art Museum, there is a miniature of the museum's original building, with perhaps a dozen tiny framed paintings lining the interior walls. Two at the front of this diorama are signed by Ms. Woolley.
Over the years, a number of themes prevailed in her work--New Mexican townscapes, missions, and churches; street scenes of New Orleans; Laguna Canyon mountains, orchards, and eucalyptus trees; and local houses, churches, and the local lumber yard. While her early works were usually en plein aire, most later paintings were of still life subjects, incorporating flowers and fruits from her garden--white geraniums, Matilija poppies, and Meyer lemons.
Ms. Woolley never married and had no children, yet she adored young people, and founded the Children's Art Section at the Sawdust Festival.
By the late 1920s or early 1930s she had settled in Laguna Beach, living for many years in a large wooden house on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway. She later bought a house at 615 Seaview, where she lived until her death on February 15, 1971.
Member: Atlanta AA; Southern States Art League; Laguna Beach AA (sec. and pres.).
Exhibited: Pasadena Art Institute, 1928, 1933; California Statewide (Santa Cruz), 1931; California State Fairs; Atlanta Artists Guild, 1934; Riverside AA, 1941; Laguna Beach Museum, 1944 (solo).
Works Held: Orange County Museum; High Museum (Atlanta).
Source:
Hughes, Edan M. Artists In California 1786-1940. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Sacramento: Crocker, Art Museum, 2002. N. pag. 2 vols. Print
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