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By SHARON L. BOND, Times Staff WriterP. Buckley Moss, famous for her paintings of Amish scenes, will close her downtown St. Petersburg gallery.
ST. PETERSBURG - Artist P. Buckley Moss is closing her Beach Drive NE gallery because of the coming construction of Parkshore Plaza, a 29-story condominium tower that will be built in the same block as the gallery.
Part of the concern is over what the debris from a construction zone might do to damage the art. Dust can get into framed pieces, and there isn't much that can be done about it other than reframing, said Jake Henderson, vice president of P. Buckley Moss Galleries in Mathews, Va.
The biggest concern, however, was how such a large construction project might scare off customers.
"We are chiefly worried about the business and how the business was going to be affected," Henderson said. The gallery has been doing well, and Moss prints and paintings probably would sell well in another location, he said.
The condominium tower construction site is at the south end of the 300 block of Beach Drive NE and the gallery at the north end.
Moss, 70, has been a commercial success with her paintings of Mennonite and Amish families, farms and scenes of nature and simple living. Henderson said she paints in oil and watercolors, and the watercolors are made into limited edition prints.
The gallery is set to close Jan. 31. The staff of seven will spend another month cleaning out the building before their jobs end in late February, Henderson said.
Opus South Corp. said last week vertical construction on the condominium towers should be under way by February.
Moss used to have a house on Snell Isle, the front yard of which contained a large, abstract female form of metal by sculptor Matteo Lo Greco. She moved from St. Petersburg in 1998, said Henderson, and the abstract woman moved to the front yard of the Moss Museum in Waynesboro, Va., where she started her artistic career.
In downtown St. Petersburg the gallery building at 190 Fourth Ave. NE is owned by Moss and probably will be sold, Henderson said. Its address is Fourth Avenue NE, but the building has sizeable frontage on Beach Drive, an important commercial area downtown.
P. Buckley Moss galleries has its administrative and warehouse operation in Mathews. From there many of the limited edition prints are sold to galleries.
"The bulk of our business is wholesale. We sell to 400 to 500 galleries across the country," said Henderson.
Prints sell for between $35 to $750. The watercolors are priced between $1,000 and $40,000. Many of the oils are on permanent exhibit at the Moss Museum. They sell for between $10,000 up to $60,000 to $70,000.
Jake Henderson is the stepson of Moss. The artist is married to his father, Malcolm Henderson, who also is her business manager.
It is possible another P. Buckley Moss gallery could open in St. Petersburg. Henderson said it more likely would be an independent gallery rather than one owned by Moss herself.
Moss is in Italy this week and not available for comment.