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What Has Worked;

The Trees Are Turning Now

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Fall. In this part of the country the trees are just beginning to change their color. Some very dark Alizarin Crimson is beginning to show up on the tops of our trees. It's the start. I am looking forward to the cool breezes and the need to put on some warmer clothes in order to bike ride around. It's just starting. I found myself checking the temperatures today just to see if I need a sweatshirt in order to ride in the evening today. I do so if it seems rather like a clear sky and we're under sixty five. We did have lower temps but the skies were cloud covered tonight. I wore my shorts and a nice shirt on my ride and I was just fine. The nice thing is on a bike one heats up under a sweatshirt so it become a comfortable manner of both traveling and also being outdoors all in one. I'm thankful to be living outside of the crowded cities where one is always near choking smoke from traffic. Granted it was a lot worse years ago when I lived in Philly...
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'South Street' Concert Hall

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A concert hall is always of interest in the memories who have seen starpower performances take place in its interior. Because of that fact I have painted this canvas using the sight of 'South Street' bar/music venue as a subject for its surface. This building and the pink warehouse beside it are both etched into the memories of music lovers of the city of Charlottesville. The pink warehouse was the sight for practice sessions of the Dave Mathews Band in its early days when it played in local stages. The 'South Street' bar has drawn many bands of late and is a fixture in the local music scene. Both buildings are on a street nearby the railroad tracks and were used to hold commercial products from trains delivered to this city. I found working all the color in the bricks to be the challenge. The windows also were daunting but could be worked into a suitable appearance once I put myself into the task mode of using changing color for each pane of glass within...
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Down in Fifeville during the 1980's and 90's

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I've been looking through some older drawings . I really didn't get a lot from them that I can show with confidence but there are a few. One has to go through a process in order to get to "the good stuff" but I did do the footwork to get to where I am today. This drawing is one I did only a few years ago as I was living near the downtown area and a section known as "Fifeville". It's housed both the working class, African Americans and otherwise has had to have much of it torn down due to street changes and old dwelling becoming just too old to stand. One was a house I lived in and painted in, it was located on King Street. I lived their from 1979 or so ( I remember the new Pope was named the day I moved in which was Pope John Paul II at the time) until I was hospitalized for my addiction and usage of drugs until I went off. I don't do that anymore but I did and it was a part and parcel of my existence during my active days of my addictio...
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"Scottsville's Main Street" and the Painting Done Plein Air.

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The winter season isn't known as the best season to get outside and make some art but well I went out anyway last week. I traveled down to a small town on the James River known as Scottsville. Its the home of an old riverboat station where the traders of commerce would travel back and forth down the James to Richmond to do business. The river still runs and the town is still a working community although it is doing its best to attract new business by reinventing itself. I went down their to paint last summer and it was a nice experience especially since I finished five or six good canvases working on that towns streets. I went back with canvas on break from the cold weather, it was in the forties or low fifties while I was out in a parking spot with my canvas. I had to deal with a low breeze though and I did so by putting rigging on the upper corners of my canvas. I literally tied the canvas to the Julliard easel with wire. It worked too. I spent the day painting ...
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Walton Home 'n Schuyler, Va.

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The proverbial home of Earl Hammner called to me to be painted. He was the author of the Americana book "The Waltons" and also the script writer for the TV show that followed. The TV show was widely seen during the 1980's. In this town of Schuyler where I now live E. Hammner is an icon and a museum has been established out of what was the elementary school in Schuyler. The museum is devoted to that TV show and its actors, memorabilia, plus a WWII museum added on to it. Folks who own the house now give tours to the Hammer home 9am to 5pm daily with only Sundays off. Schuyler is just off Rt 6 on Rt 800 (or Schuyler Rd) which is just east of Rt 29 and 30 miles south of Charlottesville (the home of The University of Virginia). I felt like I had been ignoring painting this home long enough and when I stopped into Ike's General Store to buy the local paper (the Daily Progress) some asked me if I ever painted it. Then it hit me: "I ought to do so, and ...
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