Charlottesville : The Cityscape of Change

I'm home sick today, a stomach bug that came from eating some nasty crabmeat that was a little foul, but it tasted good going down so who's complaining. Except for the way I felt when I awoke today hasn't been all that bad. I took off from work cuz I wasn't sure I could handle what demands the job has feeling the way I did this morning. So this gives me an opportunity to post some of the pen and inks that I've been dealing with as I allow my mind to wonder during the evening hours. I simply play with my notebook open, and pen in hand this is where I go. True I do make a conscious effort to control the images but I still allow for myself to wonder within the confines of the scene I am working on. It's very relaxing. Its' a good way to end the day before turning in. I also have a few drawings I did of young students in a coffee shop nearby the U.Va. in Charlottesville, Va. Some of these guys are with 'dates' but never look up and sp…

The air, sunlight, breeze and temperature were all in line for a wonderfully picture perfect day outside my home. The Miller School plein air invitational was up for the taking. I packed up and headed out for a scone and coffee before going to the backlot of the school's property, I had been to this place in the past fall of 2012 so I knew what I was facing. I had an idea of just where I wanted to go and how I wanted to attack the subject on canvas. The big question was whether my car would be able to handle navigating the pasture. So unperturbed by the thoughts of my car bottoming out in crossing the fenceline of the back property I packed up and made my way up through familiar roads. Although narrow I knew the way. I faced the open pasturea and successfully arrived at my set up spot. I got out my supplies and canvas and got right to work about nine thirty in the morning with the sun blazing over my left shoulder. A fellow artist, a french native who had taught lan…

I try to keep my hand in the arts in as much as I try to do something artistic everyday, everyday something somehow must nourish my calling to be what I am: "an artist" so this is my attempt at quieting that need. It was done a few days ago in the evening sitting in my armchair dwelling on nothing in particular...but yet dwelling on what I enjoy which is the unknown relationships the characters I draw have with one another. I find out things about my life this way, its sort of a journey of self discovery when I pick up a pen and put it to the paper before me.

What the nice surrounding land does for a person often goes unmentioned but when one paints one can show others the beauty and enjoyment one feels for the surrounding landscape. All that said (in poetic terms I suppose) how does a person portray it to others is the question for an artist. I've decided to just go out and find spots that bring up my wonderment of the raw unique power of nothing more than trees and what man has done to live among them. Here is a painting of a simple road but to see how this road bends and twist to lay upon the land is stunning to me. It's almost like a carnival ride in it's scope of bending to the landscape. True I think I must have exaggerated it some but I've gone back to this place and I must say that if it is exaggerated it isn't done so by much. Here is where I can enjoy the flow of my paint. When the territory lends itself to depicting features unique unto this place such as a fingerprint lends itself only to that …

Art takes time, and time takes devoting oneself to the task of creation of it, drawing prepares one for the making of a painting. Needless to say, I've been drawing lately. I did get out and paint today which was useful and rewarding. I finished a small canvas and it is drying as I write this post. But I have been spending time drawing inbetween canvas painting. It's a good thing to not be committed to a 'serious work' and just be free to explore one's own imagination which is what I do when drawing in a notebook. Its' a playful thing to draw and I try to get one done everyday when the paper is available and it is. The meaning of these drawings is entirely up to the viewer. Don't let this bother you, it's all for the fun of free association of our collective imagination.