I am an oil painter working out of my home studio in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. My favorite subjects to paint are landscape, floral, and still life. I love the brilliant colors and buttery texture of oil paint and attempt in my work to capture the beauty that is inherent in nature and in the common objects of everyday life. I paint in the “Alla Prima” style, which means painting wet over wet to create fresh, loose brushstrokes with colors that glow. I find it both challenging and thrilling to transform a flat white canvas into an image full of color, life and beauty. It is my intention to design paintings that uplift, inspire and bring joy to the viewer. 

I started painting in oils at the age of nine years old, when my father, who was also a painter, enrolled me in a class with artist, Philip Stein, who taught painting out of a barn in his back yard. I painted for a few years in Mr. Stein’s barn on Saturday mornings and then let painting go until six years ago, at the age of 57. Since retiring from my day job two years ago, I have thrown myself into painting in a more serious way by painting almost every day, taking classes on a regular basis and attending workshops a few times a year. I ran out of space in my studio so I began to gift paintings to family and sell some through art shows, online and word of mouth.

On a December day in 2019 we had our first snowfall for the season and I painted a small winter scene of some pine trees with a tiny red brushstroke, representing a cardinal. I thought the painting would make a lovely Christmas card and I set out to create one. A local camera shop carried a selection of Plymouth photo insert cards, so I printed 50 photos of my painting to insert into the cards I purchased. They were of a high-quality red card stock with “Merry Christmas” embossed in gold and so beautifully complimented my painting!

The cards were very well received, with many people telling me they were saving the card to display in their home every Christmas and others who planned to keep it displayed all year long. Since then, I have been purchasing Plymouth photo insert cards in white and pastel colors to showcase my art. I have sent them for birthdays, anniversaries, Easter, Mother’s and Father’s Day, thank you, etc. I also sell the cards at art shows and online in packs of six with assorted images of my paintings and my collectors love them! The cards are a nice way for someone to own a small, beautifully framed piece of my art without investing in an original painting.

Our Christmas card this past season was my painting of a red barn in the snow inserted into Plymouth’s red and black buffalo plaid photo insert card. It’s my favorite card to date! 

~ Lynn Massey

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