The River

The River view is terrific and very calming as I mentioned. It is scenic where I've chosen to place myself. It is what it is. It's new for me, yet in truth I've been here before, I just didn't know how to stay and work here. Now I feel I am ready to give it a "go". This river is just below my home and it is something else.

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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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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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Photos and Editing After A Night of Shooting

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The days are long, the night is cool : an excellent time for photography and I got to it this past weekend. I like the new way of editing photos with software such as Picasa 3 that I only plug because I am using that in doing these photos. I went to the sepia-tone in some of these night photos. We who take photos (which seems to be most everyone thesedays) can take night photos if you can change your ISO to a higher number, the higher the number the higher the amount of light that will register in your camera's sensors. So night photos are now able to be done quite readily due to the amazing speeds that ISO can go to now with the advent of digital photography. It's just amazing to me and so I have been trying it out with good results. Then I tinker with the image changing it to a sepia-tone and sometimes giving it higher color plus adding a grain texture...truly something else.
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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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Murry's Steak Building on E. Market St.

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Murry's use to be a wholesale meats outlet on E. Market Street in Charlottesville,Va. but they went out of business back in the nineteen eighties but there brick painted sign is still standing firm. How about the power of paint for ya? Its been their quite a few years past its' business's demise. I use to walk by it all the time, and I have to admit I knew one of these days I would have to paint it. Its so iconic for that part of the town of Charlottesville, and so here is my rendering of it. I know, I feel I could have done it so much differently, of course I mean I could and should have done it in so much of a better way than the way it turned out. We're (we artist) so bad about criticizing our own work, and I am no different than anyone else with this defect. But here is my entire feeling for that stretch of sidewalk viewing, its beyond just painting the Murry's building. Its about a lot more than just that, there are many memories locked away in the b...
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