A Bad Painting: but a Fun Day None the Less

Working out in the back fields of the Crozet private school called "The Miller School" was just right today, the weather was right, the clarity of the sky was good and it was a beautiful view from it. I set up on Saturday and painted for a few hours without reaching an ending point, but then I came back the day after. The work went well today and within a couple of hours I had a finished painting. The work ended up being a nice painting but the way I set it up wasn't so good, due to the design I used putting the barn in the lower corner. The barn sinks off the bottom edge pulling the viewers eye down and off the canvas surface. With the barn being such a highlight of the painting it can't be avoided so it's a sticky placement that makes this painting fail. I worked hard and well on it but I aught to have stopped in the very beginning and placed the drawing of the barn exactly right. I should have taken a better look at just where that barn is on the canvas but I didn't and just went on with it. Once it's set in one can't go back. So I continued on and its a nice painting for the way I painted the mountains and trees but I just think I will correct any flaws in the design of it in the beginning of painting lest I feel the way I do now about all my weekend's work. I feel bad about it but I have to accept that its done, and I need to move on from my flaws accept them and learn from them.

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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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