The River

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What Has Worked;

Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth, creator of Rat Fink: A son remembers

Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth, creator of Rat Fink: A son remembers Here is one of the early influences of my artwork. I use to love seeing his model caricatures in my neighbors window. Chris Pegg certainly didn't know it but it helped my develop an idea of "My People" in my caricatures that I've done over the years. Big Daddy Roth showed my how to have fun with my pen and paper back when I was fifteen and had a vivid imagination to share with 'the world of art'....I have much to thank this guy for,,,his nerve is one of them,,,he didn't mind it if he offended the more conservative of those with his outrageous gory big tooth rats and such...I really enjoyed it. It was an age when being offensive wasn't nearly as extreme as it is today, his work was cutting edge for the time. Afterall, the Beatles had just come to New York for there first concert if that gives you any idea of how unique he was at his height.
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Plans of Mice and Men Sooner Can Go Astray

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Upon our early springlike weather I popped out and put up my easel with canvas upon a local avenue that is titled :"Belmont Ave", it is here where I did a preliminary drawing before rendering it in oils this past Sunday. I have yet to photograph the oil painting but I did have this pen and ink which I will post. It's going to be a pleasure to get out once again into the elements with my equipment and in such accommodating weather it is very pleasurable to work in the outdoor air, and sun here in Charlottesville. I am hoping to get something done this spring break or the very first week in April, but we will wait and see....one never knows in this ever changing world with all the problems we have, have had, and will be having that are not even known about now. I know that the truth is always subject to revision when it comes to making plans for my future. I've learned to just put somethings aside of my own self interest for the sake of the common good of ...
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Walking Along W. Main St.

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I found the scene along West Main is soon to change into an newer style cityscape of brick and glass with less ornamentation to its buildings. With this in mind I photographed some West Main Street buildings in the hopes of finding interesting scenes to paint. The signage is all a part of West Main and in that thought I painted this one with its graphic street crossing signage featured prominently in the picture plane. I highlighted the bricks in intense reds and developed the windows in a bizarre abstract display for each one of them. Each featuring one color being themed inside its frame as if each window display had its own abstract painting going on inside its area. Its all for the fun of it, I play with what is being viable to the view when I can. Nothing ventured nothing gained. It was nice how this one came together piece by piece with each painting session. Intense color came about as I developed its' scene on the sidewalk windows. I was going to bring in...
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Philosophy of Painting For Me at Least

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"Time is a hero" I like that verse in a Little Feat song who's name escapes me at this time, but time being a human measurement method of marking changes is nice when you have it on your side. Problem is to realize it, that's a whole other matter. When I was young I knew it was really great to be 21 and I didn't have a clue as to my future but as it turns out back then there were no clues available at that time as to my future. I would change homestates and change friends I hung around with, plus I would change jobs and I had no idea that I would return to school to get my BA. If it had been shown to me (back then) just how my future would go, I think I would have balked at living threw it all. One thing has remain thru it all and that is my painting. I have kept up with my artwork. I got my degree in it from two schools so I think it is worth my time to keep up with doing it on a regular basis. I know doing something everyday in a practice of my cr...
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More Work: It's Been A Labor of Love

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I've been doing some preliminary drawing of sites I want to paint before diving into the oils. I am able tso retouch them once I get home into something that can be seen as worthwhile if one is to favor pen and inks. I enjoy pen and ink on some good paper. I am working on these terrifically well done and new buildings that have come from the ashes of the little section of town that I live in called Belmont. They are good studies of these redone buildings, and a few of the people who are now coming to this part of town in search of something to eat. This quest to paint these buildings is taking up a good deal of my time this summer painting season, and it's proving to be a good thing. I have enjoyed the results of my oils have given me, but I have yet to even photograph them. My drawings are much easier to put into digital form so I am post them right now. More to come in short order, just give me time because right now the thing is to draw, paint and pai...
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