Brushes in a Glass Jar

Sometimes I am at a loss as to what to use as subject matter for my creative juices but then I happen upon my truest love, my art equipment as my muses fixation. And so it is that I did this drawing of my brushes out on my art table. I do this to take a break from the worktime using my oils. One needs a change of pace I believe don't you think?

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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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Lost Mid-Alantic Church in Nelson County

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     This painting was conceptualized once I saw this Church or what remains of it on the side of a country road around here near my home.   It's presence was impressive with its clean white clay brick towers where windows once stood.   One could easily tell that its walls once held a congregation in prayer on any particular Sunday a century ago or so.   Bringing it onto a canvas was a chore.   It had to be painted with care and granted it was an interpretation and hopefully mistakes were forgivable for the sake of memorializing it as a home for the southern culture held within its walls.   I played with the color of it and its fictional background.  It was all for the sake of conveying the spiritual nature of this lost building of worship. 
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The Holland Farm Chicken House in Arrington Va.

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    This piece of land has more to be explored from what I have been able to discern from the local neighbors.   I've only photographed what I can see from Arrington Road nearby where the Locken Music Festival is held in the summer.   There are three buildings I have been able to study so far with more that are out of sight.   I am interested due to the age of some of these abandoned farm buildings.   I was told that this one is a 'chicken house' for the Holland farm.   Its not in operation anymore but it must have held a good number of the foul in its heyday.   This is an oil.  I use a 30/30/30 medium with sunthickened linseed oil going by the name Stand oil.   Its small, only 14 inches by 26 inches in size with a popular wood lattice frame slapped on it.  
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"South Street Concert Hall" and the Pink Warehouse

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Another look at a local concert hall is no problem: I can have another version of the same scene with no problem to being warn out, or copying what was done before. Every painting is a new and rewarding chance to begin anew. Here is one of Charlottesville's icons: the Pink Warehouse, and now with another concert hall just beside it. The 'South Street' restaurant/bar and now also an established concert hall this painting is full of Charlottesvilles' memorable spots in just one small canvas. This canvas is only ruffly one foot by two feet in size, one of my smaller ones. I worked the shadows and characters into the composition as ones unique to this city. People come and go from South Street but some give it its' charm such as the street sweeper brushing off the debre. I have done and redone these buildings but I'd like to think I only improve upon them with each new canvas that I paint.
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The Barn on the Holland Farm

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    This building had been painted earlier, just not from this angle.   I took a top downward look in this composition in oil.    I liked the perspective of the fence running downhill and swooping around into the back of the barn.   I was thinking that I had made an error in judgement when I painted the one side of the barn in shadow, but after working moreso I saw that it seemed to work since the shade is marked with details of the wooden doors, and other details worked out in blues and dark browns.   As they say, getting some distance by letting it sit for a while without me looking at it allowed me to really see that what I had done was ok in fact it worked pretty well.       I feel that this canvas is successful, but its one that a person needs to take a good look at what one is seeing before deciding if it works as a work of art or not.   You don't want to just gloss over it with a quick ...
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