Landscape of Virginia

The north/south line travels passed me just a short distance away and it has had a rather unique little crossing gate house just where the road goes over it. The train seldom passes by yet this crossing captured my attention mostly because of its so tiny. There is enough room for one lineman to sit and wait to stop traffic. Now there is an electronically controlled signal but I think it maybe that the small house use to put up a man who would stop traffic once he heard the sound of the train whisel coming close by. But it is something one just doesn't see much of anymore what with the days of computer automation happening all around us, so I thought I would draw it.

One of the nicer buildings left in the small town nearby where I now live is Lovingston,Va. It is a town with a history and I am sure the downtown that is leftover from earlier times must have stories of life within it. I just don't know what those stories consist of right now but I intend to learn about them. One of the largest buildings in the downtown area is this one with a great porch on it and that it is three floors high does say something about its former importance to the life of this city. Now it stands in disrepair though. It made for a nice study and the part of the drawing that I am showing here is only a section of the overall rendering of it in my notebook. The part of the city where this building stands is more or less uninhabited by the towns people of Lovingston. All the two hours it took to do this drawing I saw but one man passing by on the sidewalk and he was pleasant enough but I was just about to ask him "well what are you doing here?"...

Sometimes its best to simply explore your home community for artistic content, I did that today by heading out to the Drummhellers Apple Festival in my home county of Nelson, Va. The fun was seeing everyone make such a big deal out of apples. Since living here, I too have been making an apple a day a big part of my life so I guess its fitting that I go to this festival. I did pick up some fine Winesaps for my daily lunch bucket. Well lunch bag I guess...but they had those types and many more in big wooden bins for sale too. I enjoyed seeing the funnel cake truck at the festival too, which is what many county fairs and festivals of all kind of varieties are really all about: an opportunity to get a funnel cake which allows one to mention that little fact whenever the subject of a county fair or any outdoor festival is brought up. But I rather liked the intense bright red color of this food truck that sold those funnel cakes, it was noticeable from many yards away. In fact ...

Going out on the town in Lovingston seems to mean going to the local grocerystore shopping mall, while the actual downtown area remains quite and out of the sight of pedestrian traffic. It does lend itself to a closer look at some of the architectural features done in the woodwork of the building. And so I wanted to study just that with this drawing as the result of my day on the drawing board. Right now I am studying this area for a painting which will come sometime later on, since I am back to work in the school system it might be sometime before I get around to it but it will come about to be sure. I see how this town had its heyday but now has sunk into disrepair. The paint is pealing on these buildings and people are scarce. Very few cars past down the street as I sat drawing but these buildings remain standing as a silent way of notifying people of a time gone by where people met and events happened. These buildings are no longer dwellings where they are of much use ...

There is nothing better than having a cat asleep in ones lap. Such is my situation on a regular basis now a days since living with two wonderful felines since last March, Fiju and Nepal are my companions and whom I support, spoil and nourish with love and good food. Here I drew Fiju taking a short nap. She is the younger daughter of her mom Nepal. Both have a fondness for each other that goes above the spats they can get into here at Schuyler. They are both indoor cats. I don't want to subject the bird community to the agile quickness of either of them and since this is a bird migration route well it goes to say "be kind to mother nature".