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Cyndee Poole and a work from her “Full Moon” series. Artist photo by Jean Farley

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Land lover

By JEFFREY SIMMONS/Staff

While artist Cyndee Poole draws her inspiration from magical moonlit nights, teeming tropical landscapes and earthy abstractions, it was a no-frills hot dog diner that helped her decide to put down roots in the Southwest Virginia mountains.
“We just absolutely love it down there,” said Poole, a native Floridian who’s renovating an Amish farm in Bland County with hopes of moving her body and creative soul to what the 49-year-old calls “God’s country.”
Poole, who works in the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., area fell in love with the region a couple of years ago while stopping in Wytheville on a return trip from Nashville, Tenn.
She visited Skeeter’s restaurant, a downtown eatery famous for its hot dogs and nostalgic atmosphere, and was hooked. The locality’s history furthered her interest.
With the help of a friend, she purchased an 18-acre farm in the Mechanicsburg community in 2006 and has an apartment there that she visits nearly every weekend in the summer. It’s also the place she wants to make a permanent home.
A painter for more than 30 years, Poole and her attentions of late have been focused on developing a series of mountain landscapes and folk art, specifically decorative barn stars.
Many of her earlier works portray the surf, sun and seaside she observed during her Florida upbringing and Caribbean travels.
A member of the International Society of Experimental Artists, Poole uses innovative techniques – including applying acrylic paint with natural sea sponges—to complete some of her more abstract pieces with titles such as “Harvest” and “The Machine.”
“I play with color,” she said.
Intrigued by the use of light and shadow, Poole admires Thomas Kinkade, the oft-collected and renowned “Painter of Light.”
Some of her paintings – especially the “Full Moon” series—seem illuminated by an internal light source.
Although Poole, who has no formal art training, enjoys other artists’ handiwork, she strives to put a personal stamp on each of her uniquely created canvases, which have even included stones and driftwood.
“They are very unique,” she said. “It’s not like anything else other people are doing.”
Whether she’s fashioning a sunset silhouette or impressionistic collage of colors, Poole wants viewers to see and appreciate the natural environment she cherishes.
“She sees God in all life and in the beauty of our existence,” reads a statement on her Web site — tropicalarts.com. “…She hopes to awaken people to the fragility of the planet through her artwork. It is our duty as human beings to preserve these gifts entrusted to us for future generations… .”
Poole’s paintings, and therefore her message, have been exhibited in galleries in the nation’s capital, Texas and Florida.
She sells prints through the Internet, which also serves as an online portfolio.
Her paintings have also been turned into wall tile murals.
Along with art, Poole dabbles in Web site design and photography.
It’s the artwork, though, that comforts and soothes her and shows her love for her earthly environs.
“My art is a way of me expressing that,” she said.
Jeffrey Simmons can be reached at 228-6611 or .