Landscape of Virginia

Today, I got out of town. I went up to ride a trail with a friend, some paved mountain roads and some dirt. The dirt was the best, it was packed down from recent traffic and rain so it was a nice smooth packed surface for us. Going downhill was a howl maker. The thing was that the road surface would change at an unexpected moment on a downhill run. It would go from packed earth to gravel in a heartbeat and then it became a little trickier to stay upright. Both Chief-John and I made it ok. There were some close calls but we managed. We traveled north of C'ville up across a ridge and then downhill to some pastoral landscapes with horses, longhorn steers and other lovely animals like anti-biking farm dogs. It was all good! It turned out to be a twenty eight mile ride, over two mountain pass roads and along some really nice bottom land. The weather couldn't be beat, it was cool under the canape of tree limbs and there was a dampness in the air. We enjoyed it all

It was a successful couple of days painting up on Pantops Mountain at Peter Jefferson place, what a great view to paint. For the last couple of days at noon I have been up on the third floor balcony of the Martha Jefferson Hospital at Peter Jefferson place painting a landscape of the view. It's tremendous and breathtaking in it's scope, it gives the viewer a complete panorama of Charlottesville and the mountain ranges beyond it. It shouts out "paint me" every time I have seen that view, so for the last couple of days I did just that I painted it. Yesterday was the start of the painting, and storms could be seen taking formation. It would be a great location for a "weather cam" because you can see clouds forming so well from up their on Pantops. I painted for an hour and a half, just getting the painting situated and getting the under - painting started, and making sure I took a close look at the buildings and their respective locations in the

Just getting better after an illness struck me on Friday two days ago, I'm starting to feel more like myself now. I am in a field where people often exchange illnesses with each other, and it seems like that is what happened this time too. Eight people where I work came down sick on Friday. Now on to the better news, tomorrow is our last working day for the school year and then I am headed out to paint once again. I have put aside time to devoted to my art. I will be working in oils, acrylics and watercolors no doubt all at various spots I have scouted out during the school year around this town of ours. I am hoping to get something good out of all of this. It's been four month since I lifted the brush to paint so I'm hoping I still have what it takes. I guess we'll find out. I've been out photographing some of the late spring activity of the flowers of Belmont, I will include one in the heading of this post. They come from just picking up my camera and