ART IN THE PALISADES

Yvonne Paxton, a long-time resident of the Palisades, has painted all her life.
Largely self-taught, her commitment to painting is long-standing and passionate. Working first in water colors, she later switched to oils.
Yvonne Paxton has sometimes painted with a group of other artists, and her paintings have been exhibited at the Spring Valley Garfinckels, Lord and Taylor in VA, and the Island Gallery in Manteo, NC.
After years of showing paintings in this way, she and her sister formed The Two Sisters Gallery/Studio in Occoquan, where her work can be seen on a regular basis. As a member of the Northern Virginia Art League she attended critiques by Gene Davis, color school painter and teacher at the Corcoran School of Art.
Her work is influenced by the color school of painting. Her relaxed, gestural style of painting is impressionist, and full of subtle color and light. The subject matter is nature. —Sheila Rotner

PARKER'S EXXON, ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT

Parker’s Exxon at 4812 MacArthur Blvd. was the site of a press briefing in October that promoted Used Oil Recycling Day.
The station was one out of nearly 100 in the Metropolitan area accepting used motor oil that day without charge. Also sponsoring the event was the American Petroleum Institute (API).
In its publicity release, the API stated that “proper collection and recycling of used oil helps protect the environment and preserves natural resources...Recycled motor oil can be re-refined into new lubricants, reprocessed into other products like asphalt and chemicals, or used as fuel for more energy. Just one gallon of used motor oil can generate enough electricity to run the average household for a day, cook 48 meals in a microwave oven, blow dry hair 216 times, vacuum a house for 15 months, or run a television set for 80 hours.”
Motorists can now check a new website to find places to take used oil for recyclying: www.recycleoil.org.
At the press briefing, PCA board member Nick Kaufmann, who works as a DC waste minimization and pollution prevention officer, recognized Exxon station owner Lynn Cooke also for his 1998 award, in the small business category, given by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program’s Businesses for the Bay.
—Penny McGinn