Resting after a day's work; I am in the middle of making a new painting dealing with mixing an abstract idea of balloons and a figure on a cell phone with blending in a setting sun with shadows added. I like giving myself problems then getting to work solving those very same problems in paint. Soon to be working on a daily basis my summer break is only two weeks away and I am planning to get outdoors to show the great countryside of Nelson County to the world. (or whomever takes a look at this blog) So stay tuned, and be patient with me the work will be coming fast and furious
soon.

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What Has Worked;

Remains of an Early Virginian Church

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 The old world of European faith was rife with change when new varieties of religion left the old continent for the America's open horizons.   These remains of an older mud stone Church is still here in Central Virginia near where the Lock'n Music festival takes place, only but a mile or so to the east it still stands in its muddy sandstone way.   I didn't find out much more than it was a Church at one time where people placed their wants and needs on the Altar to the keep of a Higher Power.   I don't know what faith these remains belonged to but knowing the society around here it no doubt was a early Virginian Christian Church. 
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Whiting Oil Company on W. Main St. C'ville, Va.

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On a walk to my day job in the 1980's I would pass this non-important gas station on the main drag of West Main Street. Today its a new and different event taking such a meandering in Charlottesville, the buildings are all redone and new ten story hotels are being placed on that street. The old has been made new. I believe the term is re-gentrification. Such a change happened to this former gas station. It was a building I passed by and never really took a good look at because there wasn't anything 'noteworthy' for me to see in it. It was your average gas station with mechanics working on cars inside of its portals. But then came the changes and renewal occurred. While I don't like change for change sake, the re-gentrification of West Main Street has added some taste to that street's structures, such was what I saw in 'Whiting Oil Co.' It has had some new walls added, outdoor tables and new glass windows that made it somewhat unique to ot...
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Lost Mid-Alantic Church in Nelson County

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     This painting was conceptualized once I saw this Church or what remains of it on the side of a country road around here near my home.   It's presence was impressive with its clean white clay brick towers where windows once stood.   One could easily tell that its walls once held a congregation in prayer on any particular Sunday a century ago or so.   Bringing it onto a canvas was a chore.   It had to be painted with care and granted it was an interpretation and hopefully mistakes were forgivable for the sake of memorializing it as a home for the southern culture held within its walls.   I played with the color of it and its fictional background.  It was all for the sake of conveying the spiritual nature of this lost building of worship. 
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James Madison's Home "Montpelier"

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The second and larger painting done of Montpelier has two figures added simply to give the painting some kind of a human reference point. With the two men looking at an early version of a bicycle at the front gate, I had hoped that would add some added feeling to this painting. I was hoping to get away from this painting just being another 'historical building'. With some figures ( looking somewhat in the time frame of Jefferson) this painting might have a point of historic reference during the time of its conception, which would be in the early 1800's. James Madison's home does have features that Monticello has which is just no more than twenty miles away just down Rt 20 southward. It is said that Madison designed this home, and he did have it in mind to copy some of Jefferson's architectural designs in his own work of Montpelier. Madison's work seems to thrust the usage of columns right at the viewer when looking a this building dead on. Ma...
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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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