Landscape of Virginia

I was outside painting in the middle of a field at noon today and I had to stop after a few breaks in an airconditioned car to keep off the fainting. I would have brought a camera and had a photo of the really beautiful spot but it was too hot even for a sensitive instrument such as a phone or a electronic camera. But I did get a good start to this new painting and I hope to head out tomorrow morning to finish it up. This summer has been just great for all the new visas to paint here in Nelson County, Virginia. It mountainous and very green. The people here are very helpful and curious as to what I am doing and painting. I welcome them and answer all their questions and volunteer some information too. Thankfully no one has run me off their property. The folks have welcomed my presence and been quick to give me permission to set up my easel and paint on their land. It's been just exceptional this summer. I don't feel like painting buildings anymore, the foli

The second version of Waltons Mountain was a little less pushed and came out with a bit more fineness to it. It was painted in daylight and had an artist who had taken the time on the day before to see just what the scene was made up of. (I painted the same scene the day before) and this second time I knew I wanted more than green to be used on my brush. So I got to it and with a couple of hours I had a finished painting...the one seen here

The mountains nearby are also very interesting subject matter for my palette and brush. I painted one with a storm coming down the way towards me. The mist was very pleasing but it kept getting just a little more intense as time when by. Finally I felt enough that I had to pack up and make a run for it. I did get this rather unusual painting up of a dark sky with some very tree filled mountains.

The views around here are spectacular and meant for my brush and palette and so here is one version of a landscape scenery near here down at the James River area. It's just off a road that parallels the James north of Scottsville in a little place called Howardsville, where there is a barge crossing of the river. One of the few left in the country but it's their....anyway I saw this beautiful composition and had to paint it and so I did....more than once too. This is the larger version, it's maybe a foot and a half by two and a half feet wide in size. I like it and had a good time painting it.

Painting on a Sunday is always going to be kind of a spiritual experience and painting nearby a Church service is no doubt going to bring into being the Church building as subject matter for my canvas. That's how I got going with this particular painting. I was out in the middle of a field with nothing much more and trees and sky to paint but there was this Church that stood far away but very visible, it was red against the green of foliage. And so this painting came about quickly but most assuredly the composition made itself.