After That What's Best


It's having fun with friends on a wet Saturday afternoon on a lakeside shelter...hot dogs and mud.

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What Has Worked;

Hut for a Blue Tractor and a Red Grass-Cutter

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     Many of these farm structures that I live around out here in Central Virginia near Lovingston are made from wood that has been recycled from earlier farm buildings.   I am almost certain that a lot if it may just go back to the early days of European settlers locating here in Schuyler.   One can just take a quick look and even without carbon-dating one can see that the wood is old and weathered by the elements.   It is very heavy older hardwood that these folks used in making their farm structures.   One can also see how the buildings were shaped for the needs of the farm at a time and then torn down but not discarded but reused again for another purpose..   The sizes of the buildings are small.   They may house one farm implement or two but they are not like those northern Atlantic barns that have lofts and large areas for animals, these buildings are built to suite a single purpose and generally aren'...
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The Barn on the Holland Farm

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    This building had been painted earlier, just not from this angle.   I took a top downward look in this composition in oil.    I liked the perspective of the fence running downhill and swooping around into the back of the barn.   I was thinking that I had made an error in judgement when I painted the one side of the barn in shadow, but after working moreso I saw that it seemed to work since the shade is marked with details of the wooden doors, and other details worked out in blues and dark browns.   As they say, getting some distance by letting it sit for a while without me looking at it allowed me to really see that what I had done was ok in fact it worked pretty well.       I feel that this canvas is successful, but its one that a person needs to take a good look at what one is seeing before deciding if it works as a work of art or not.   You don't want to just gloss over it with a quick ...
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James River Rd art

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The views around here are spectacular and meant for my brush and palette and so here is one version of a landscape scenery near here down at the James River area. It's just off a road that parallels the James north of Scottsville in a little place called Howardsville, where there is a barge crossing of the river. One of the few left in the country but it's their....anyway I saw this beautiful composition and had to paint it and so I did....more than once too. This is the larger version, it's maybe a foot and a half by two and a half feet wide in size. I like it and had a good time painting it.
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Kidd's Store

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Kid's Store is a spot in the vase farmland just east of Scottsville. Its a small country=store that serves the farmers and those who live in the central Virginia area. The owners aren't comfortable with sharing their bathrooms with those who end up there when headed to Scottsville from Fork Union. Perhaps one ought not to be looking for such accommodations but the store does have snacks. That's what its there for after all, people ought to take care of themselves before traveling anyway so.... Its a cool looking place, and as far as snacks they have it made in the shade. And its good for gasoline too.
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Blane's Books and Coffee; the painting

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Finding time to visit Scottsville, Va. again I brought along my paints w my easel, water and a nice straw hat to shield me from the sun. But I didn't know where I would be painting or what. I drove to downtown Scottesville and simply parked right where I found the first open space. I got out. I looked across the street and voila my subject was their. I pulled my equipment out, set it all up and got to work. Some passersby tried to sell me an easel they had no use for anymore while others simply said a nice 'Hello' and moved on. All the while the sun shone and I got my work done. Within two and a half hours of standing up I needed a break. I brought along a three legged portable stool and I set it up under a shade tree right next to my canvas and I sat down. I saw where I need to go, and beside being tired I saw where I could make a few painterly notes on the canvas and I could finish it up at home. So I did just that and I closed up shop. Then...
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