A native of Pennsylvania, Lou Messa studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In the late l960's he moved to Virginia, to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He has been painting for 30 years, showing his watercolors and acrylics in numerous local and national exhibits. Winning awards has been the norm for Lou Messa.... first in show at the Woodbridge Art Guild, Coral Gables Florida, and Rappahannock Realism Shows to name a few.

Lou prefers the country, both to paint and to live in. He says he's a country boy at heart and his paintings reflect that love. Old weather-beaten barns, winding country roads and overgrown pastures are favorite subjects for his detailed paintings. He is also recording some vestiges of rural Americana that are fast disappearing, the barns painted with "Mail Pouch Tobacco" or "Coca Cola" and also some of the structures carefully built with stone and mortar or handhewn timber by immigrant hands.

Lou Messa works with watercolor or acrylic, rendering his images with great precision and detail. His preferred palette is monochromatic browns and earthtones enlivened by concentrated bursts of localized color.

McBride Gallery has hosted four major shows for Lou Messa as well as the group show he participates in each October at the gallery. Lou Messa is an exceptionally fine painter whose work can be found in many private and corporate collections nationally. Over thirty of his paintings have been published into limited edition prints.