Original Lithograph Titled Quilting Bee by Deborah Ellis

This limited-edition original lithograph was created by well-known Alexandria, Virginia artist Deborah Ellis. Ms. Ellis, born in Boston, graduated from Radcliffe with an Arts History degree and studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan. Her paintings have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions; among them the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Mint Museum of Art and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Her works are included in the public collections of the Library of Congress, Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, in addition to corporate collections. * Ellis has taught at the Art League in Alexandria since 1989 and has many videos about painting on YouTube.

This charming artwork depicts the silhouettes of 14 women, many of them wearing old-fashioned bonnets, seated around a quilting frame. The "quilt" is composed of blocks of quarter square triangles (QSTs), half square triangles (HST's) and blocks of printed fabrics. Done in shades of green, rust, brown and beige, the quilt is the dominant centerpiece of the artwork, set against a solid cream background.

The print is number 5 of 75, notated in pencil at left under the art. In the center is the title "Quilting Bee" and to the right the artist's signature, all written in her script. The outer measurements are 24 inches by 20 inches and the artwork weighs just under 6 pounds.

The 1 1/8 inch wide wooden frame has a subtle burnished antique gold finish, with some distressing of the surface that reveals the red base color, a traditional method to add warmth to the frame. The framer is a long-established one: Liros Gallery in Alexandria, with their label on the back along with a wire hanger. Frame, Plexiglass and lithograph are all in excellent condition, ready to hang and admire.

*The corporate collections include those of the Markel Corporation, Reed Smith, VCU School of Medicine, McGuire Woods, University of Virginia School of Law, University of Richmond, Ethyl Corporation, and CSX Corporation, among others.

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