Rockfish Show: Nightime Fun on a Rainy Night

My Opening at the Rockfish Valley Community Arts Center was good for me and I was complimented on the quality of my art on its walls so it was a success. I had about twenty dedicated fans that made the trek in a wet rainy cold and dark evening to the Opening. I had ruffly twenty one paintings on it's walls. They were all very large paintings and the venue was just right for those sized paintings. I would have photos but I felt I was their to enjoy myself and not to record it with a camera around my neck. A friend who was working for the local paper came by late and took a few snaps that might appear on Monday I think he said but I was very happy with speaking to him and the many other friends who showed up. They told me my jaw aught to be very tired when the event was over. It wasn't. I could have greeted many more fans. I am more than happy to say there were many who I came that I was able to invite from casual meetings over the previous few weeks. It was nice to have the Center let me put my big work up. Its not often that I have had such a good place let me put up my larger work. The Center's director isn't charging me anything and even provided all the snacks that my guests ate. It an out of the way kind of venue but very nice and it's been renovated recently so it's nice, real nice for showing art in. I hope they have a good future since they treated me so well. The art will hang in the Center until November 17th when I will take it all down and bring it back home.

Comments

Post a Comment

What Has Worked;

Walking Along W. Main St.

Image
I found the scene along West Main is soon to change into an newer style cityscape of brick and glass with less ornamentation to its buildings. With this in mind I photographed some West Main Street buildings in the hopes of finding interesting scenes to paint. The signage is all a part of West Main and in that thought I painted this one with its graphic street crossing signage featured prominently in the picture plane. I highlighted the bricks in intense reds and developed the windows in a bizarre abstract display for each one of them. Each featuring one color being themed inside its frame as if each window display had its own abstract painting going on inside its area. Its all for the fun of it, I play with what is being viable to the view when I can. Nothing ventured nothing gained. It was nice how this one came together piece by piece with each painting session. Intense color came about as I developed its' scene on the sidewalk windows. I was going to bring in
Read more

Wyant's Store in Whitehall,Va.

Image
  It is noted that Whitehall Virginia is a throwback to an earlier time, a time when people knew who you were whenever one was to shop in the store such as this....its something found in the rural areas of this state and not so much in the cities of Virginia. This is one of my paintings of such a place, where the guys inside it are all gathered talking about what's news in the area over some snack food of one kind or another. They were all very kind to me once I stopped in to see the inside of this store once I was done painting for the day. I enjoyed working on this one...it is the second of the same subject, the store was interesting to work on so I took a second look as it were and painted it again. It's wasn't so much that I didn't like the first painting of this country store it was more that I enjoyed working on it so I thought I would prolong the joyfullness by doing it a second time. I'm sure you have no idea what I am talking about..well just have a
Read more

Firecycle in Kamahura: 1954 or So

Image
Its been a long time coming but I finished another in my Japanese style paintings this past weekend. It's of a fire cycle, they didn't have enough money to build a fire truck although they did have a few in the station instead they made a cycle which could fight fires. I thought it was kind of unique and looked very different that anything I'd seen before so I painted it. Using one of my Dad's black and white photos I did a rendering of it. I enjoyed working with the strong red colors even though the photo is in Black and White I could remember some of the colors involved in this vehicle so I went ahead and played with it. It took a good deal of work, but I continued on with it until it was completed. I just couldn't let go of it very long while I was painting it. I guess I did another marathon painting session last weekend. I know I felt it after I was done.
Read more

The County of Nelson's Courthouse

Image
Life's interest often takes us to the law and where the law is practiced. Recently there was a trial where it drew statewide interest due to the unusual manner in which the prosecution held its case. They didn't have the right of habeas corpus to carry on a conviction with yet the trail went on, and in the end the man was convicted of capital murder. There seems to have been enough evidence to convince the jury of the man's guilt. It was only the second time in Virginia criminal law cases that this has happened and it happened here in Nelson County. The Courthouse where this trial took place stands alone on top of a hill (the highest point in the city of Lovingston, Va.) The courthouse has a newer extension put onto its northside but if one sees it from one spot where I painted this canvas you can't see it. But what you do see is the old structure in all its grandeur. Such was the place from which I chose to paint this rather unremarkable yet noticeable b
Read more

The Holland Farm Chicken House in Arrington Va.

Image
    This piece of land has more to be explored from what I have been able to discern from the local neighbors.   I've only photographed what I can see from Arrington Road nearby where the Locken Music Festival is held in the summer.   There are three buildings I have been able to study so far with more that are out of sight.   I am interested due to the age of some of these abandoned farm buildings.   I was told that this one is a 'chicken house' for the Holland farm.   Its not in operation anymore but it must have held a good number of the foul in its heyday.   This is an oil.  I use a 30/30/30 medium with sunthickened linseed oil going by the name Stand oil.   Its small, only 14 inches by 26 inches in size with a popular wood lattice frame slapped on it.  
Read more