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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Downtown to Read at the Library I Saw....

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A day at the downtown local library was truly an eye opener. I went to look up the newest issue of American Artist magazine which I truly love but just don't have the warewithall to have a subscription. The stay at the table I was at was quiet and truly comfortable for my pursuing my magazine but upon finishing it I saw an unusual site at the tables beside me. Those men who were sitting had books open but were simply sitting still and quiet but they were also staring off into a far away wide open space. It was eerie and I took a long second look to see it in a perceptive manner as to not miss anything, then I got up and because I was done with my article I left the library. It was later on at home I picked up my pen and drawing tablet to render the image of what I had just experienced at the downtown library. How unique and eerie yet very moving in a manner that Potemkin was a moving film. That is what I have posted as my drawing for this article. Life is what it is...
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Scottsville's Smaller Shops

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A small town nearby is Scottsville, it was the main avenue to Richmond via longboat in the days of Jefferson. The place is struggling to survive now a days with a advent of superhighways and fast moving cars. People drive right through the place and cars seldom stop into the businesses located in that small town. Its only twenty miles south of Charlottesville on Rt 20. The town possesses a literary coffee shop, an Italian restaurant and other businesses of interest to a visitor from the outter reaches of the Universe. I liked this little image I put into paint of the hodgepodge of small stores located near the city hall (the last building on the right hand side). Its really a charming town.
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Penn Academy of the Fine Art Visit in Philly

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I made it up to Sinking Springs Pennsylvania and then into Philadelphia the next day, what a great city! The city was really alive with people and new stores and buildings that I had never seen before. It was really a treat for me. My friends (Mike and Annson) took me to the new school building for PAFA and then into our old classrooms in the Museum building. It was nice to see the classrooms where I worked so hard to "get it right" but I never felt like I did "get it right". But no matter I had the desire to keep working and the teachers were encouraging none-the-less no matter how "bad" I felt my artwork was coming out. I was carefully brought into the creative world during those formative years in the Old Museum Building. I did practice and work everyday I could when I was a student in the certificate program at the Academy. After working on casts, it seemed like I improved in my abilities to bring out something worthwhile because of...
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