Blue Buildings Line Downtown Scottsville, Virginia

A new look at the sleepy little colonial port of Scottsville on the James is what I've been interested in this summer. I've take a few different approaches to it. My first was a small painting just discovering what was out their, then I painted a store front, then a particular store and now this week I was working on the group of downtown buildings in a 'streetscape' painting. The latest one turned out to be kind of a 'flat color study' where I really was looking at the geometery of those particular buildings on the downtown strip of little old Scottsville. I actually was rather far away from my subjects when I set up my paintbox and water. I could actually hardly see them. I guess I need a little more displine in my drawing so I get it all 'in' the painting itself..oh well..live and learn and live to come back another day and try it again. I did stop at one point and walk down the street to actually see what made up those doorways under the black and white awnning so I could 'get it right' to sight. I have a nutrial feeling about this painting, maybe because it seems to 'plain' to me, afterall I've been treated to seeing many more lively works come from me over the years and this one is kind of tame. But I guess there is a place for everything in this artworld of mine and something in my conception for everything that can be painted. One can even paint what doesn't exist (like angels or fairies) but which can take form on the canvas before the artist. With my imagination well I've seen a lot of bizzare faces appear with my caricature style and this new discovery of what construction in the real world or the world that can be seen and measured by us well that is kind of different for me to witness. And it's actually nice but in a very sensitive and mild way it's kind of nice to see...I guess I'll keep it up for a while longer. It interests me some.

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What Has Worked;

An oil of: "10 St. and Wertland Ave.n' Charlottesville"

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Another older building is somewhat expected when viewing a J Trippel site of artwork. I can't help it I like painting buildings of Charlottesville. Someone at the art center I belong to said "are we going to have more building facades coming in" so although I felt slighted some, I saw the point. I do buildings a lot. So much that a book is in the works because I do so many buildings. But more about that in the future once it is done that is (the book), for now I like to put something other than just a building, I am adding characters because of that comment. I felt the person who said that had come merit to what she was saying. Buildings are places where people dwell and work and such. I felt they should be include in my canvases somehow, without taking too much away from my structures. That's why the guys on scooters. The scooter idea is a new one for Charlottesville, its in an experimental stage with two companies putting them out in public places
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Murrey Steaks Building on West Main St. C'ville, Va.

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I've been thinking again in ink. I've got an idea of what I want to do next and I am playing around with it in an ink and paper motif. I might do this and perhaps not, because I wonder,"Who afterall wants to see these buildings in oil afterall?" But I enjoy them and have done them before in watercolor which is a big help due to having a prior knowledge of what lye ahead.
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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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New Jobs for Me and How I'm Seeing Our Economy

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Today I begin a new works site with two of our students in a job in a hospital service department in a place called Peter Jefferson Place just outside of town. I am thankful to be working with two very good students who have integrity and a calm demeanor. In the morning I will work with my group in the dining hall dish room and then go right over to Peter Jefferson Place around noon to work with our students right after they finish their lunch. It looks like our economy is in need of some fixes, and I really wonder if our country has what it takes to pull itself together. I know this presidential race will have a big affect on our economy and it can't happen fast enough in my humble opinion. I think it just drags on for a little too long with the primaries happening so early. There is all to much time for candidates to stumble on their own words. I see the stock market taking big swings and from what my relatives said who were alive during the market crash on Black F
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