Landscape of Virginia

Just one more small one before I drop out of sight for a while: this is a pen and ink about my slightly ajar memory of drinking coffee in a restaurant in Philadelphia back in the 70's. I couldn't say that there was anything wrong with the people up north, they were just different and kind of personable in a different way than our southern traditional welcoming kind of folks. I enjoyed being with them, so don't get me wrong, I was weirder looking and acting than any of them when I lived up north but I just can't help make stuff up about them. Of course its all true what they say about me back up their (but they did some stuff too). The food was great. The places that served it were great too and I am just having some fun drawing some weird situational comedy afterall so go figure where I'm coming from. Enjoy!

Many paintings have been posted this past year of 2016 as I completed them, but that time has come to a new vista, I am putting away the oils for a while so I can concentrate on my other job of working with students with various degrees of disabilities. Or what's better known in the trade as my 'day job' that's the one that pays the bills and is meaningful in other ways as well. But I'll be back with more as the time get closer to some Holiday times when I am here all by myself with plenty of spare time to use for art. I will be drawing in the meantime and don't fret I will be back, just not right away. In the meantime here is a photo of my path to my river down below my home, a place of solitude and thanks for all the good the God of my Understanding has allowed me to participate in.

Do you ever have this happen to you? You've finished a project and your sitting with the results and something inside you says "its just not right" and no matter how you rationalize it that comment is still present in your conscious, that was the situation with my last painting, so out came the brush and palette. It didn't take much but I did correct the lean to the left that the building had going on, along with that I actually put some realism into the people's images in the windows and doorways on the left as well. I could stop with that though, I hit up the crows on the wall to be a little fuller. Charlottesville has some well fed crows with all the restaurant dumpsters around that they all feed off of. Comparing the earlier with the former, I'd say I was right "it wasn't right" afterall.

The collective "we" certainly has wholly accepted coffee shops of late, and such is the case with this shop in Charlottesville that goes by the name "Shenandoah Joe's" which has two locations and sells its' beans in a local grocery shop. Dave who owns it is a really down to earth nice guy. He'll go out of way to lend an ear to whatever one might have on there mind at the moment. He's a unique guy and he runs a good shop. The one on Preston Ave has done so well that he is revamping it into a larger space, so this is where I come in. With doing a painting show of spots in Charlottesville that are landmarks to the locals but that are at the same time going the way of disappearing into history, well its time for me to paint it. Such is this canvas, the building is slight of note, it could easily be overlooked well honestly as an eyesore. But I took some photos and I'm cringing but at the same time I am doing my best to render it as it bring...