Landscape of Virginia

This restaurant has such a mysterious pull to it, I'm thinking "it needs another go at it" and so I pulled out my brushes once again. First I began a second and larger painting of it. Then while in the process I decided to add in some detail of the telephone wires that pass by but I failed to note in my first painting of the 'Guad'. That didn't take long to do. Once done I got back to work on my larger but not too too large second rendition of the Mexican restaurant 'Guadalajara' in the downtown area of Charlottesville. It took some time to finish it. Working on the canvas in two and a half hour stints I finally got it done in one week's work. In working on it I had to put it down and say it was done but then see something that needed a little more ....I had to do this a good number of times before I put it down for a final drying period. I liked the final result. I felt that I accomplished what the physical and spiritual feeling

Fool'n around I worked up this mess of people doing wrong to others, what I am thinking I don't know but it was fun. I create some nonsense sometimes at the cost of my reputation as a friendly guy I think. This one has a happy smil'n man putting on a woman's hair, now I don't think for a moment that one aught to take part in such and action but still one has to have fun with some wild ideas this being one of those. I tease with the hope that no one would actually perform this action on anyone else, it would be flat out wrong. But in drawing, it is possible to put down some images that in the real world would bring down ire from above, but this is art not reality. And its not to be taken as something one would advocate as something to do to another human being, certainly not!! I simply draw, and this seem to fit my feelings for the moment while at the drawing board. I really don't see the harm. Its all in fun. So please take it as such.

A staple for any of us who lived in the downtown Charlottesville area during the past two decades has been the restaurant "Guadalajara". It was a hamburger joint run by some drug happy folks who would be glad to give you a free burger for buying something not on the menu. They gave away their profits I think, I don't know this to be fact though but it sure seemed like they ate up all their profits to me. The restaurant went under in short order (sorry about the pun but..), and this group of gangling seemingly Mexican folks took over the place. They decorated it up with some funky artwork and a new color scheme taken from the colors of the Mexican flag, then on top of that they named it after a Mexican town. Fancy that! After visiting it and enjoying the huge cocktails they sold I actually found myself enjoying the food. They weren't much on spices but they did fill the plate in (what was to me) unique and satisfying way. Tacos, Enchiladas and burritos wer

Charlottesville's skyline is changing and in as much so are the businesses that have been here for a long time. As long as I have been here. These are paintings of some of those businesses that have been the staple for so many years I can count them..(because if I did they would only be for the time (34yrs) I spent in this little college town)....but I need not. As an artist, I am interested in reflecting the society around me. That while those old adages: Am I a product of my environment or my inner self? Or both? And if so how much? And the view of artist is ever so sliding from one side of this quandary to the other: "Are we not but windows of our society reflecting what we see day in and day out?" So with all this in mind, I am on a quest to paint those Charlottesvillle places that served both the town's folk and the student population of our small village before they are flattened by the ever fast wreckingball for new diggs like the many new hotels are

I always thought as politics as a function of us as a society to help us to help each other with our common elements. Those being what we live in common with, besides the obvious I would say things like food, shelter, transportation and education would be among those common needs. I drew this as a hopeful idea that if one person came upon another that he would reach out and help the other up off the ground. Of course its obvious that this doesn't happen as a usual event in the cities I've been in. I've seen a man face down on the sidewalk being walked around with not one person stopping to see what was wrong. I am thinking that this aught not be the case with the city I spend my days in, in fact once I was that person on the street who needed help while I lay their bleeding from a gunshot wound. I was helped. My life was saved from bleeding out by those heroes of the Rescue Squad who quickly got me into an operating room to take the slug out from my head. My hea

As the days roll by I sometimes see a time when I feel 'hey its all worth it' and perhaps that epitome shows up in my drawing. It could be the subject of a painting or an idea that can be followed up upon at a later time. That is one reason painters often go back to the source and draw. It makes for a great proving ground for work that might be better explored on larger scale. Such is this drawing I did a few days ago.

There is nothing better than reworking an older 'put aside' drawing, when one gets the chance to bring new life to an old tired out work one by reworking it. In as much as I've done so before I once again brought new dimensions to this drawing by elaborating on its' city life. I added to what lay within its windows and streets by adding figures and shadow with light falling on its characters. I believe it brings the dream into focus much better with these improvements I imposed upon it.

Sometimes there is some street drama in the city, it can often be missed as daily activity but in reality there is much behind the story, more than meets the eye. In this case its a scene of a couple doing there best to leave a place without being noticed, and of course they are. Its happening in daylight and with busy people walking by going about their daily business. But the fun is in seeing how this woman is contorted in sneaking about going out the doorway. I might have blown her actual ability to twist and turn some but forgive me for that problem and you can see how she is trying to hide her face with a pose that actually bring attention to it. I've actually seen people do this and I can't believe they can have any thought to being discreet, cuz they aren't and they stick out like a sort thumb. Such is life. I just had this thought as I completed this drawing. When I began it I drew the guy holding the box and then the sidewalk which lead to drawing a figur

A day where if we wish hard enough will be the very day we we're most thankful to be 'in', it may be today but its always that day your at the coffee house. I haven't ever been regretful for hanging out in one of the many coffee houses in our little college town. In fact with the spreading of the 'coffeehouse' nich to even some of our small towns near here, there have been many more places in which to enjoy the locals' and there stories as they talk. Easedropping? Perhaps I am guilty of it but what the heck, its fun and I don't spread what I hear around for others to dig their teeth into the latest from the grapevine, so I'm not really so bad. Am I?

I often have fun with some images of my cats in my drawings at home, and I've never really been that good with there faces but this one (drawing) isn't so bad. I started with drawing one of my cats that I've had (Camel) sitting licking itself (or preening as I've heard it called) on my armchair. From there we flash to this afternoon: my cats were running amuck all over me and of course I submitted to petting them, well this drawing came out of my pen a few minutes after they had calmed down some and commenced to sitting on the rug while I drew. I like it however it is kind of weird, I suppose one must have lived with cats for a while to appreciate it enough to enjoy it. Anyway so it goes on my drawing board today.

Out here in the remote side of life, the idea of serenity seems like it would be a great part of life here but its not necessarily so. People are people wherever one goes, there you are among people. The truth is the surroundings are very suitable to it but one must do the work on the inside to gather serenity on the outside. And one can have ones outsides thrown to the dogs all over again in a moment when one doesn't expect it but your intuition can not always be of help in warning you went its going to come, yet somehow most of us do manage some serenity once in a while, in-between the chaos and striving to get ahead of the pack. Some even want to be in charge of the pack, go wonder about that one, I do. Anyway this drawing deals with those times between when there is a moment when one says "yes, this is what its about" and for those moments I dedicate this drawing of a young couple just sitting out in a meadow enjoying the day and each others' company.

My short relief from running this blog w my art was much needed, yet its still quite a joy to come back to it with something new. I have turned to the basics of drawing for a relief from painting. It working out very well, I've sunk back into my 'old ways' of working from my imaginative funny spot of caricatures and lampooning innocent folks doing nothing more than dinning at a local spot (completely made up in my mind of course) and so it had brought me to a new enjoyment of a good laugh for laugh's sake. I'm hoping to have a little fun before I return to the serious work of painting buildings of note to those who've lived in the college town nearby of Charlottesville. Well on with the fun.

Just one more small one before I drop out of sight for a while: this is a pen and ink about my slightly ajar memory of drinking coffee in a restaurant in Philadelphia back in the 70's. I couldn't say that there was anything wrong with the people up north, they were just different and kind of personable in a different way than our southern traditional welcoming kind of folks. I enjoyed being with them, so don't get me wrong, I was weirder looking and acting than any of them when I lived up north but I just can't help make stuff up about them. Of course its all true what they say about me back up their (but they did some stuff too). The food was great. The places that served it were great too and I am just having some fun drawing some weird situational comedy afterall so go figure where I'm coming from. Enjoy!

Many paintings have been posted this past year of 2016 as I completed them, but that time has come to a new vista, I am putting away the oils for a while so I can concentrate on my other job of working with students with various degrees of disabilities. Or what's better known in the trade as my 'day job' that's the one that pays the bills and is meaningful in other ways as well. But I'll be back with more as the time get closer to some Holiday times when I am here all by myself with plenty of spare time to use for art. I will be drawing in the meantime and don't fret I will be back, just not right away. In the meantime here is a photo of my path to my river down below my home, a place of solitude and thanks for all the good the God of my Understanding has allowed me to participate in.

Do you ever have this happen to you? You've finished a project and your sitting with the results and something inside you says "its just not right" and no matter how you rationalize it that comment is still present in your conscious, that was the situation with my last painting, so out came the brush and palette. It didn't take much but I did correct the lean to the left that the building had going on, along with that I actually put some realism into the people's images in the windows and doorways on the left as well. I could stop with that though, I hit up the crows on the wall to be a little fuller. Charlottesville has some well fed crows with all the restaurant dumpsters around that they all feed off of. Comparing the earlier with the former, I'd say I was right "it wasn't right" afterall.

The collective "we" certainly has wholly accepted coffee shops of late, and such is the case with this shop in Charlottesville that goes by the name "Shenandoah Joe's" which has two locations and sells its' beans in a local grocery shop. Dave who owns it is a really down to earth nice guy. He'll go out of way to lend an ear to whatever one might have on there mind at the moment. He's a unique guy and he runs a good shop. The one on Preston Ave has done so well that he is revamping it into a larger space, so this is where I come in. With doing a painting show of spots in Charlottesville that are landmarks to the locals but that are at the same time going the way of disappearing into history, well its time for me to paint it. Such is this canvas, the building is slight of note, it could easily be overlooked well honestly as an eyesore. But I took some photos and I'm cringing but at the same time I am doing my best to render it as it bring

Just north of Lovingston is this gas station where I sometimes visit with a friend for a Latino style breakfast. It is a unique spot, a one of a kind in my experience of gas stations. It is the typical country gas station with the exception that it has a Latino styled restaurant in the back and from the outside look of it nothing else looks quite like it due to its paint job. I really love how it captured my complete attention from the road when I first noticed it driving by on my way to Lovingston. Its bright as all in the sunshine on any typical clear day. When I first saw it I said to myself "I've just got ta paint this place, just for its paint job if nothing else." As so I did. Its raw wood flooring and hand built counters are filled with goods and there is always a friendly smile on the cash registrar attendant's face when you go to checkout. The restaurant in the back is raw too with its indoor picnic tables with plastic place-mats from which to ea

The Ben Franklin was the very best way to spend idle time back in the day. This painting is a tribute to em. One could always find those things that one didn't really need yet had to have none the less. Whenever spotting on I would always ask my Mom to go in and have a look around and lovingly Mom usually did if we had the time. They were great stores for stuff like superballs or balsa wood airplanes that one could snap together in a minute and have fun with for the rest of the day. It could all be had with little cost to one pocket. They were a great idea and there were others like Woolworths and People's Drugs, but this one (Ben Franklins) were my favorite. They are all part of the past now, all have gone under at one time or another. Yes I am waxing the metal of the past some here but if you ever had been in one you too would get a little nostalgic here too. They are something one doesn't get on the internet. One doesn't go skimming across the web look

The idea of doing the same object over and over again was something that our art profs had us do during our first years as art students. As you can tell (if you've been following this blog of mine) this is a redone imagery of a street scene in Charlottesville's dinning scene, the Blue Moon Cafe has appeared on my canvases before. The restaurant is one small spot that holds a very dear place in our community of cityfolk. Its gone through its changes, and now they are talking about putting a ten store building crowded around it. What next, put it under glass(?) and sell tickets to the oddity of quaint old haunts of the hippie era(?)a...well this is my painting of the new style of the Blue Moon. It had had a wooden slate roof but all that has changed. I just paint it as I see it. Its a larger painting than my first work similar to this one. This one is about four inches higher and maybe a few inches wider, which gave me more room to move and expand on what I could inc

A friend whom I don't frequent much time with anymore, not because I don't want to we just don't cross paths like we use to living in the same neighborhood and all....well anyway on with the story with this painting; He saw this scene way up in Maine (God only knows what he was living up their for, a girl I suppose..well) and he took out his camera and photographed it thinking that it reminded him of "JT's People" as they have often been called by people who knew how I use to paint these kind of overweight folks almost all the time. Well enough for the run-on sentences, I just had to get it out...this painting was the result of that photograph coming into my hands. I let it sit for over two years thinking I didn't really want to paint it. It didn't catch my interest until this guy sent word back to me that he'd like me to at least try and draw it, these were my people afterall. So I did. Then I found a way for him to get a look at it and I h

I am slowly building up a collection of important structures in Charlottesville, afterall I lived in that city for 34 yrs without leaving it very often so I think it fits to remember it in oils. This painting is a little local market on a very busy wide avenue near but not on a downtown street. The fella in the window is a character who is their whenever the door is open and he is the owner, proprietor of the Market. Its nothing fancy mind you however he does have the essentials on hand. He runs a clean Market, not corncob pipes for sale either over or under the counter. Its been handy for me to run in with our students on a hot day and have a soda or waterbottle cold and frosty. The actual image of him in the window doesn't do him justice due to the fact that I painted him to be such a small figure, he doesn't really stand quite like that, but he does stand in the window on many a day and simply peer out watching whatever happens to be passing by. Lots of people and

I'm currently working on an oil but I had time to review older pen and inks last night here. My interest was piqued by one of an "Wooden Ship" that I began work on over a year ago. I wanted to add some interesting details in order to bring it to life it didn't seem done, there was something that said "yet undone" Some drawings lye about for a good amount of time and they simply down draw much interest in oneself to look at them. The reason can sometimes be that they aren't finished yet and they ought to be put back on the drawing board. I did that with this one of a 'Wooden Ship' and certainly what I did afterwards was worth it in my humble opinion. What you see is the final work, before this endpoint it lacked something one just can't put into words, but it was something important..not everything is describable in words, sometimes we just know. Hope you like it.

The iconic dinner on West Main in Charlottesville has got to be "Mel's Cafe". Its been their since the 1970's or perhaps it predates that time I haven't checked but it is an excellent 'pit stop' on a walk from the University to downtown. I needed to include the place in my collection of 'known spots' true to Charlottesville's historical significant buildings. The building has that retro nineteen-seventies look to it with the wide expanse of glass and the winged roof atypical of that era. I enjoyed painting it although the darkness created by his smoked glass on most of the windows is something I neglected to include in my rendition of 'Mel's'. I felt that the attention to the images he includes on his walls such as framed photos and other framed items too small to make out their origins or type were objects of interest for me as I rendered this painting in oils. Its truly a unique place, and the only one of its kind in thi

There is a spot in town where I was a frequent flyer at and that spot is aptly named the "Lucky 7". I don't know the story behind that name and I know it as the one spot in the downtown area that has some truly seedy and unique characters behind the counter at all times of the day (and especially)at night. I often arrived with a thirst of an elephant in need of some liquid enjoyment. I went their due to the availability of my favorite drink at a lower price than the norm of course (this was in what's called in the vernacular "the liquid drug") and they had it....lots of it. And I believe if one drank and one lived in downtown Charlottesville or Belmont there would be a chance that at one time or another that one would arrive at the doorway of the "Lucky 7" looking for this 'item of need'. But since getting and staying off drugs I haven't had so much of a need to visit them, thus the recall of the place is sort of a novel thing

Greetings, I usually don't post newsy stuff but this is different; today I finalized the agreement to show up to twenty paintings at the University of Virginia Mc Intire School of Commerce in Aug-Dec 2017. I will be working towards this goal in the couple of summers and during the coming schoolyear to come in the hopes of working it into a 'good exhibit' which people from all walks of life can find some enjoyment in viewing it on the hallway walls. It's on the 'lawn' or 'grounds' (which is localspeak for campus) of the University so don't tell em that I use to drink with my 'city rat' friends under the pine trees until the U.Va. security would chase us away. I learned to stand my ground and not run from my responsibility. So not all was lost. My cat will be overseeing all my efforts towards the show at Mc Intire...so it will work out just fine.

This is an oil done from the mention by an owner of a local recordshop that I ought to paint his place. After hearing that from him I walked across the street after making my purchase (yes I still like the hardcopy of CDs but I do download an occasional MP3 whenever I want to but I tend to print it out on a CD anyway but....)and I took a look at his building. What I saw as the fact that it is an old railroad storehouse of somekind for the city (of Charlottesville)where stock was unloaded to be shipped onto other transit methods of distribution to Central Virginia. I just had an historic look to it, so I thought 'yes why not' (paint it). I came back later on to snap it, then worked on it from home. Slow going was it, but not for any bad reasons moreso to add quality painting on it. The University just gave me its Committee of Review acceptance to put on a show at the McIntire School of Commerce for the spring of 2018. Yeah its a ways off but on the other hand it g

Looking back on some older work I found this drawing among my pen and inks. The issue of cartooning always was a subject I enjoyed playing around with, a'la R. Crumb and Zap Comics...who's comicbooks were among my most favorite to read and reread. In absorbing R. Crumb's artwork among the pages of cheaply printed newsprint I found myself laughing out loud at some of his very detailed humorous drawings of the city. I didn't know it at the time but he was but a few miles away from me as he lived in Northeastern Philly while I was in West Philly during the 1970's. I would have liked to have met him, I would have liked to see what he thought of my artwork at the time when I was in the Penn Academy of the Fine Arts doing my own cartoons in oil paint. People actually didn't know what to make of my art. Half the faculty loved em and half hated em, so go figure...I guess I was doing something right. I believe in a mixed reaction even if it hurts some, at leas

As I get older I reminisce, mostly about my time with one of the most beautiful girlfriends I ever lived with....I know, one always wants to know just who that was but if you'll forgive me I will move on without revealing her identity...and during my time with her we moved to Philadelphia to live in Center City on Spruce Street. While we were setting up our place in our new diggs we awoke on a Sunday morning to an idea of heading out to Fairmont Park and watching the sun rise over the city. The park is on the western side of that city and it has some high hills that overlook Center City if one is to look eastward. I was not in the mood to get up let alone drive my car out to the Park that morning, I sighed "oh noooo" but then acquiesced and got up and dressed. I felt the heat of every ray of sun on my face that morning in the pain of my awakened state. But I did drive us out to the Park when the city slept. Once we got their we saw a man standing under the hi

This is a slow season for me, a time when schoolwork is asking a lot and so on and so on...I need not explain any further. Well I do come out with a pen and ink occasionally during these slow times for my paintings. Such is this one...don't ask I don't know what this is about it just 'is' whatever it 'is'

One eating spot that almost all agree has the very best pizza is Annia's #5 on Alderman Road. Its a simple restaurant with no frills added into its decor but its good menu items can't be beat. The reason for being called "Annia's #5" is unknown, in as much as we don't know why there is a 5 in its name. When asked the owner is enigmatic and you will leave still not knowing why the "5" but hey its ok...its an existential absurd question and answer so move on. The enjoyable part of this place is that its usually open when one has the hankering for a pie. And that is a winner in itself. So enjoy the art, I enjoy the place and the people who own and run it. Its one of Charlottesville's landmark spots on many townpeople's radar.

One of the American traits is to pop into the local fast Mart or locally here in the south is the 7/11, but in our little part of the world its better known as the 7 Day Jr. which is particular to Charlottesville. This one has some folk-law with regards to my past and my story. It use to be a frequent stop for me, either for smokes and a soda, or simply to ride my bike over and pick up a six pack. Often I would find the store had some improvements done to its interior with new displays or a new arrangement of shelves. It was always interesting to see just what that new thing was and just what it looked like. This frequent stop in was eliminated in my life due to the fact that I no longer drink beer nor smoke cigs, so now if I am thirsty I might stop in for of all things a bottle of water...but just that, nothing more. So even more frequently I just keep on going till I get home and I can get a water from the fridge door. My new fangled fridge has that capacity of all things it

There are cheap places where you can have a low cost breakfast and then there are those places where you can have a "made in-store" low cost breakfast that is well worth the money spent, the Blue Moon Diner has always been one such place. It has had a 'make-over' recently but it still holds its own even after putting on a new look. The diner has been around as long as I have so its at least more than thirty years in its lifespan. Yeah, I guess its nothing more than a much longer lasting restaurant than others are and have been in this town, and I too must admit it is a 'greasy spoon' but its a good greasy spoon. In as much as the restaurants around here have gone over to a healthier menu eliminating food high in HDL and cholesterol this type of place has outlived its style of food fare. Yet it hangs on and almost an historical location now that its been existing for so long. I liked the older building which I too painted a canvas of (and one

The city has a market near downtown that is a local anomaly where native and newer city dwellers alike buy there food. The store is packed with items such as perch and bass that have been caught by local fishermen and sold to the butcher inside. Its then packaged and sold to its customers. Locally grown vegetables also are put out on its shelves for purchase, it houses almost anything a cook might want that can be found to grow in our little area of the world. Its a great store and one that has its own aura from the outside streets looking in. I snapped a few photos while running across the street before it and I brought this store into my collection of canvased memories so that it won't be forgotten as Charlottesville grows. This along with other city buildings are not going to be around forever due to progressive land restructuring. New hotels are going up as I write in the downtown area and I'm sure this store is being eyed due to its location. It is the

I often have fun with my imaginary characters when I have some free time at home, and such it was during this snowstorm where we had eighteen inches or so to sit through. I pulled out my pens and some drawing paper and got to work. It resulted in a couple of drawings, one a basketball scene with some weird type of goings on that I don't even know what its all about. Then a second drawing of a business man passing by with some ever so strange guys around him, this to could be about anything at all. Even with drawing these figures in a lot of ways I am sort of a passerby of my own creativity on the drawing paper. I don't even know why this drawing is the way it is...it just is.

Circular objects are the unifying shape for most planetary objects, at least in our level of reality other obtuse objects are usually smaller and of the asteroid sort. Just kick'n home during this snow storm paints are what I turn to for spending my time indoors and so it was with this blizzard of 2016. I picked up on my acrylic paints ability to render a painting in short order by there fast drying and quick set ups so one doesn't have to wait long to over-paint anything. Mistakes are easily remedied with quick drying paints, you don't have to sit with your mistakes long before one can just paint over it with an opaque color. Ahh that magic eraser: opaque colors. And so with this painting there weren't a lot of mistakes per-say but there was a lot of working the paints to get a nice variation in color as the ball objects shown in light of an imaginary sun off to its right. I enjoyed painting this exercise in shape and working with light and color to crea

Often I have after-thoughts with regard to a canvas I might have just signed and dated. Yes even though I say 'its done' I still sometimes have other thoughts about its completion that can outweigh my official stoppage. Such was the situation with "Hamner's Crossing" it just wasn't done. I sat and studied it and I decided to take the plunge and work on it somemore just because those trees needed some winter leftover leaves on them. Then when getting into it, I decided on some other changes. Lost in the fever of the moment I guess. When one begins painting, one never know where the muse will take one. It just the nature of creativity to be lost until one begins again, only to discover much more awaits than what one anticipated before the starting of the endeavor. Its now done. Framed and signed, ready for a show somewhere, with some new eyes to see it.

Sometimes as an artist one will come across a scenic place that is just calling out to be put into an oil painting. Such was this spot in Nelson County right where the railroad tracks going North and South pass through the County. It has plenty of space, and visual impact one might expect from a railroad crossing. From as far back as Edward Hopper (which isn't that far of a stretch) the railroad scenes have been a real draw for we visual artist. Rails have such great and large visual props. This crossing caught my attention with its two crossing guards and lights. It is so structured and its contrasted by the chaos of mother nature all around it. So here we have order surrounded by chaos, what a site of novelty and the promise of good subject matter for my canvases. I started by photographing the scene. I took perhaps thirty or so photos from one side of the tracks but doing it from all angles. I simply walked far down the road and then walked back towards the g