Landscape of Virginia

  You know how kids are. you mention an abandoned house on a back country road and immediately its named "the Ghosthouse" and its that way with this particular house on this back road in Albemarle County.  Its on a shortcut road just off of Plank Rd, just after the twisty curves on the left.   Sure I know still you'll never find it but its there.   Its a typical Victorian styled house but its been boarded up and left in the field for quite some time, left to grow cobwebs and moss.   Its got three other brown rotted wood houses right next to it.   They sit with all the stories of life lived within its walls evaporated from within and wind blown from without them.   They have some beauty not yet given up to time.

      The grounds keepers house on John Hollands farmland is one most interesting home.   It seemed to me to a home, one that seemed to be the earliest structure made on this property.   Granted its one that is small but it seemed to have that feel of a starting spot for whomever began living on that land.   Its a small structure and one where a man and wife might fit in with a small place to live and cook what with it having two chimneys and footprint big enough to fit two people in for just living and building additional buildings on later.      The painting came slowly.   Its one in which I worked the paint well after the application of oils and laid down the ground colors in the beginning to get the image drawn and set up the correct proportions and perspective of the brush drawing image.   The dark colors added when drawing in the image in with the loaded brush.  At this point in my painting I can draw with the brush whereas earlier I used a very thin medium of turpentine and lins

    I was painting this house plein air and a man walked up behind me and began to speak: "Do you know anything about the house your painting?"   Well, I didn't.   It turns out that this house is named "the Langston home" and it was the spot where the Union Army w General T. Sherman set up his headquarters while staying in Central Virginia during the Civil War in 1863 (or so)....the Army set up its tents in the land surrounding this home in Faber, Va.   The house is still in the same family and they own most all of the land that I rendered in this painting.   There property goes way back into the mountains behind the home, and up to the west and east of it as well.   Chuck (the man who came up to chat with me as I painted) was very talkative n explained most everything anyone would care to ask about that place.  I just kept painting.  It is located just south of Irish Road or Rt 6 in Nelson County, Va.

     This house is found on a twisty road not used by many people, its one of a few in the woods.   Most abandoned homes are around it and by the looks of it this home too is without any current residents.   It can give most people the 'willies' or the' shakes' just to look at it due to its poor condition.  It was interesting to me as a serious house to study.   I did take a few liberties with the color of the wood and the condition of the windows.   I made it look in better shape than it actually is in.  

  Bringing new thoughts in my sketchbook into the sight of my eyes is often fun and a refreshing change from the tedious palette and brushwork I do everyday.    This is one of my fun sketches that I've done with the feel of our election process.

     On the back roads between Shipman and Arrington (where a nice rock festival takes place) there is a group of farm buildings that stand abandoned with grasses growing among them.    This barn is one of those buildings.   It stands atop a hill with a slope of a grassy plane which makes it a dominate scene.   Its really quite becoming and the unique style of the building creates a really nice balanced image.   So I painted it after photographing it from the side of the highway.   

 Sometimes one is asked to paint something that is meaningful to them but not so much to you.   That's when a cash incentive is included in the deal.   Such is the case with this house painting of a friends home in Arrington Va.

 This structure made of earth'n slate brick like blocks stands alone in a field near an old railroad track.   There was a time when a train ran between here in Schuyler and on down to Scottsville.   It began its run in the mountains near Afton and for all I know it might have run all the way to Richmond.   A friend said his mother use to ride the train from Esmont (near this structure) to school in Scottsville everyday.    What I don't know is just what this 'house' is or who lived in it and if it was a 'house' at all.   It remains in a field just off the road between Keene and Esmont. Many folks know of it.   Sometimes a  crew of photographers will show up and set up a model in a pose using it as a backdrop for the photo-shoot.   Eitherway, it is interesting even if no one seems to know just what its doing their in the first place.   I suppose its been through a lot different uses over the many years its been standing, for me its use is 'something interesti

   This building sits on a hilltop overlooking the Walton's home in Schuyler.   It is a wonderful addition to this small community and is attended to by but a few remaining members of its congregation that live nearbly.   I wanted to paint it with the thought of it being a really beautiful building that once housed many ceremonies for those minors who were devout in their faith and prayed within its walls.       

     The northern most state during the southern Civil War was Virginia, and we lost.   Here in Central Virginia some of the homes built after that time are mostly but not all leveled to the ground.   Some remain but in tattered shape.   Many not at all.   Those homes built to replace those that had fallen were built with poorly made  of construction material.   Now many of those are falling apart too.    I've seen very many on my drives around the County I live in and the Counties nearby be homes that are in that condition.   The condition where they don't seem too long before crumbling into dust.         Its clear that the South suffered a defeat and unlike our foreign enemies that we defeat then rebuild there country after the conflict ends the South never has been helped with aid in such as manner that has been given to those foreign countries like Post WWI Germany, post war torn Iraq or Afghanistan.   Here in this painting I am taking a hard look at the devastating affects

    The Country in Virginia has spot where the folks decided to place a gas station alongside a road.    Its there that they serviced those that lived nearby, now defunkcd they remain crumbling along the roadside.   Once popular as service stations they have an iconic look to them.   That is there look is unique to the fact that they all have a portico reaching outward from them where the gas pumps stood.   Here in this painting I pictured those features in this station declining days.   One can sense it must have been the scene of many a car fueling under its roof.   The wood is rotted.   The pumps have been removed.    The oil tanks well who knows if they are gone or not,  no way to tell.   The geometric wooden structure is still in tack,  for how long no on knows but for now it remained long enough for me to paint it. 

 Here is my version of Walton's Mountain with Earl Hamner's country home before it.   Its small painting, only ten inches square.   With the tacks holding the canvas and the popular trim framing, ten inches and....  Its an oil painting done on location on Rt 6 in Nelson County, Va.    

This barn was rusting out from the top down, so it was very colorful to paint. My canvas called out to have some fun with it, so I did: the result is a small painting that changes tone from one side to the other.   True I did have trouble photographing it but still you can still see the warm browns and deep black/blues on the right side transversing over to cold white/greens and blacks on the other side...way weird eh!

I've had troubles getting the lowdown view of this isolated country store w gas and sandwiches to go, the first two paintings were just down the tubes as far as visual interest. This one is better. I took in the outter view of cushion value of distancing around the store itself, and I think I won with a better feel to this scene. The station is buffeted by some space around it and distance too. Its a little better to view when there is some breathing room around it and not jammed into a small canvas space. I like the cars a little better in this one as well as leaving some visual detect-ability of the painting methods I used in creating this version of "Kidd's Store (#3)". Hope your entertained with its intensity and spacial relief.

This is from a barn on Route 6 in Louisa County Virginia, its another oil using Stand oil as a medium. The stand oil is much thicker than regular linseed oil, much like the thickness of honey. It is linseed oil only the liquid has been taken out and what remains is a nice oil to paint with, it has a much better shine and luster once its used on the canvas w paints. The barn painted here is one old barn. I didn't get to talk to anyone about its history but one can notice its age when looking at the photo of it. Its been thrown together from older slates of wood, most likely from another free standing barn just reused on this one. It was repainted but one can see that some of the paint must have just flaked off. Its kind of a 'specked egg' arrangement but it keeps the outdoors "out" and the indoors "in"....with country living its the function that's important not the appearance.

While driving on my routine trip into the city, I saw a home in Esmont that was half open, half of it was exposed to the elements. I was taken. I've been interested in showing the "in's' and out's" of country homes. Well there is was sitting among other homes like it. The difference being it was half gutted and open sided to view. I immediately wanted to take a photo and paint it, but I thought better of it and just let it simmer. About a month later I was snapping photos in its backyard. It was an enjoyable subject to paint.

There is a road I often take to get to the Lake Monticello area where my doctor has his office, and along the way is this store. Its "Kidd's Store", a spot along the way in the middle of nowhere its sits quietly. I stopped and took a look inside. There I found it stocked with a few typical snack items and a small counter that served small sandwiches and other items. There is one person behind the counter and that's it. No gas pumps but it did have an air machine as you can see in the painting. It might not have been much but it was something, and the only stop for miles around, so it was a welcome storefront. People know of it around here, it even has its name on the local TV station's weather map, so its got to be somewhat well known.

I started out by painting in this style now dubbed 'toonistic art' or 'lowbrow art' either way it was a way I began painting. It was formed after being brought up reading the 'funnies' every Sunday morning after Church on the floor of our living room. With the large paper spread out across the rug I slowly engulfed the funny papers one artists work at a time. To me they were a wonderful feat of both ideas and drawing and coloration of those caricature drawings. It was my weekly dose of art that came right to our house. Wonderful! When I began working in oils at the Academy this was the style I wanted to emulate and otherwise saw as a valid artform. My teachers were divided on this issue I later found out. Whether or not it was an accepted form of art, they later gave me an Honorable Mention Cresson Award.

So I reworked that last subject which was that old country barn off of Rt. 6 and I got a completely different painting out of it. I took a head on view of it and worked with the perspective of the receding post holding up the right side of it. That gave me time to work on the sunlight upon the post holding the roof up. I began doing those posts with a simple brown and bear canvas cartoon. When I returned to that area I decided to make a color change to include a deep dark red mixed with some burnt umber which contrasted well with my Hansa Yellow w Flake White and light ocher sunlight side of those posts. It made for a welcoming effect but there was one troublesome moment of reality. That was how the right side of the painting was so warm with all that effect from the yellow and reds that the left side was very cold. It was something that I saw as a feature the viewer would have to forgive, I had the thought that it might be forgiven as simply the cha

This is an oil of a barn in Lousia County. Much like the others its located on the side of Rt 6 as your leaving Scottsville, Va.

My current idea is to paint those structures that were in place during the earlier millennia for Virginians' to carry on within its walls. Its places like barns for agricultural purposes and housing livestock are those I have targeted to paint. Those barns and old homes have been weathered and many are nearing collapse. I am trying to record them before they are gone into the history of the land. This particular one was sitting by the side of the Rt 6 road. It was still in fairly good condition yet it did have some holds in it walls. Many of those old barns aren't being used anymore, and I honestly don't know why other than that they could fall apart on whatever is housed inside them. The wood in them is rather unique and colorful in an earthy way. I find that part of them appealing to paint.

This painting is one in which I transposed my eyes vision onto the canvas. I saw this barn on the other side of the highway from "Kidds Store". I was at this spot to get a photo of Kidd's Store yet I saw this barn on the other side and saw that it too was an interesting composition that I could put on a canvas and perhaps, just perhaps it too could look good as a painting. So I snapped a photo of it and took off for home. I took it as a barn that I could interpret into something more than just another barn painting. I changed the coloring of the tin roof and the colors of its sides to become what it is. It is unique. It is not what one sees if you were standing their looking at it. But yet it is (at the same time recognizable as itself) It is more than what sits their, yet it is what sits in the field before you on Rt 6 just east of Scottsville.

Kid's Store is a spot in the vase farmland just east of Scottsville. Its a small country=store that serves the farmers and those who live in the central Virginia area. The owners aren't comfortable with sharing their bathrooms with those who end up there when headed to Scottsville from Fork Union. Perhaps one ought not to be looking for such accommodations but the store does have snacks. That's what its there for after all, people ought to take care of themselves before traveling anyway so.... Its a cool looking place, and as far as snacks they have it made in the shade. And its good for gasoline too.

One of those things that happen as one grows older, old friends that were in the same class as you get in touch with you and one has some sort of kinship simply because we were both their in the same school at the same time in history. Its odd. Due to this phenomenon he asked me to make a painting of the home he grew up in back in Alexandria Va. He sent me the photo and I got to work. It took longer than I expected it to take due to the complexity of color involved. I wanted it to be a simply white house but it was told to me it wasn't white but an off grey and green color. So I put down the green onto the canvas and then I couldn't get away from it from there on in. I played with it and put my hands up in dismay yet I kept going back and worked on it. I had hopes yet in the end I had to say well its a good painting simply for what it is. I learned that its possible to salvage some work and it isn't possible for others. I did what I could but I think it

This painting is one of a small business building in Shipman, Va. Shipman is a railroad town that has seen its better days a while ago. Now there is little activity yet its buildings still are holding up. This particular building is right next to the tracks and also the Post Office. It is a business building of some sort, the owner is retired and it sits alone. I don't know if it is being used today but it is still in good shape. It really stands out among those in Shipman mainly for its distinctive coloring and shape. Its not like many other buildings in this part of Central Virginia. It has that very unique porch underneath the second story that covers it by jutting outward with a Red Leaf tree growing upward. Its unique. One seldom sees a tree being an important visual part of a covered porch but here it is part of the composition. And a very important part of this painting.

Work'n at home has been where I've painted most of the time since retiring. I like working at home because all of the needs for comfort while being at work are here in the house. Food, rest room, comfort from the elements, pets and so on, while something can be said for working onsite due to one being exposed to more details of the environment of the subject for the painting, its kind a hard to stand and be committed to spending as much time as it takes in order to get the oil painting finished. I cop out and work from a digital photo. Its not that bad. Somehow digital photos work differently than the old analog photos; one could tell when an flat analog photo was used. The image would usually have extremely sharp edges of objects and it almost always seemed as clear as glass in every part of the painting. Digital photos work differently for we artist who use them. We artist who use them, are much more likely to be able to get a lifelike painting done without

I look at these southern barns that I've been paying attention to as subject matter and I've been thinking of my own experience as a one bedroom apartment dweller. There is a similarity: I was spending my life in about the same amount of space as those who were housed in the buildings I've painted. Those who lived in such a manner had much less in the way of utilities and comforts in their homes when compared to me in a city apartment. I can see why many country folk have moved into the cities of Virginia and northern spots. When you live out here there is nothing more to be entertained by than what is inside the four walls of your home. Survival! Those who where homed about this countryside worked, played and careered in small sized locations and no doubt few interactions with people outside there immediate family and perhaps some nearby families outside of there own. All of which I in my life have taken for granted that I could always interact with a stra

In the olden days barns were the workspot for our farmers. They were the source of income and protection for farmers livestock and crops. The barns were also the source of pride since it was the family who built them were the very same who used them. The barn was one that stood in the middle of progressive construction. New homes and townhouses are built all around it. This barn is located right on the outside of C'ville. It was once surrounded by the landscape of rolling hills and forest, now removed; this barn stands ready to fall. It will soon do so, but before it does I like to photograph it and create a canvas to its existence . These barns just don't get enough notice for the importance they were to the American construction of our national fabric. And so I paint them.

Some of Albemarle's countryside is spotted with barns. The nice thing is that many of the older ones are still standing and in pretty good shape. This one has decent metal roofing and its not leaning in one direction or another. It is filled with lumber. The view I got was from quite a distance due to a fallow field of grasses coming between me and it. It has clean lines where the breaks occur between the roofing and the sidepanels. I like the manner in which one can see into its interior. I enjoy painting what views occur once your inside it looking out. This was a fun barn to paint.

This truck was parked in front of a country garage on Irish Road doing nothing but collecting dust. I saw it parked day after day as I came and went from my home. It seemed like the perfect scenario: garage burnt out and old tow truck. I felt that they were both wore-out and done. There best days behind them they were both resting with each other watching the sun pass overhead as each day flew by. Cars and trucks wizzing by paying little attention to that which once held a formable presence serving the public needs of getting a tow and a fix-up. But with a fire in the garage and the truck needing repair no doubt there days were done. But you know they both still have an attractive presence and are reminders of a time gone by.

These older cars can be found around Central Virginia. But sometimes they are hidden deep in the forest, however these two wonders were sunken next to a burnt out garage on Scenic Route 6. They are a Buick on the right hand side and an Chevy older than (or perhaps is from) 1956. The enjoyment was to work on all the fantastic rusted color change. It sparked me to come up with representations in color and form for those pieces of metal. It was a lot of fun, yes challenging but still fun. I wouldn't do it if I didn't have fun at it you know. These two cars sit beside the wall of a defunked automotive garage. A garage that was in use for decades. It helped those people who live out of the way as a 'go to' for car troubles. Then during my first month of living here it caught fire and it wiped it off the map. Only a shell remains....more work will be done using these artistic articles for subjects.

Sometimes I have a good feeling about doing a painting even before I begin one, such was the case with this oil. I was commissioned by the couple to paint their new home in Charlottesville. They had just moved here from up north somewhere, somewhere like Baltimore or DC, anyway they wanted a painting from me because they were fans. I was very happy to take on the project of painting their house. It is a 'fixer upper' and they gave me an inside look at the remodeling they had done on the kitchen. Excellent stuff! I was impressed on the craftsmanship Jon had shown in doing the shelves, the pantry and all the woodwork. He wanted my painting to show all the work on the outside of the house, the garage, the stairway down off the side...and the gate. It was a lot to put into the small canvas I had but I thought I could do it. Its taken about a week or so to get it done. I am grateful for doing it. It was an extraordinary project in the use of color on the s

The dilapidated homes just off the roadside are fascinating, they are gathering dust and imploding as we paint them. I am stunned home much they lend themselves to my eye for being interpreted into color on a canvas. Its often the case that they aren't going to last much longer. So I photograph them while I can and then transfer them into paint in both line and color. I use color to define the object, in this case a house that once was a home to earlier Virginians. Its a matter of history that I be as disciplined as I can in painting them in order for them to be remembered accurately. I am not the best at it, I'm certainly no NC Wyeth. I"m not so great that I can't be told "that's not right!" because maybe its not but I am working on getting it down as it looks to me. Painting is an interpretive process. My hope is that what I do works for the viewers that take a look.

It often the case that people who live near and even far from the DC area summer in the woods. The woods are often in the mountains of the Blue Ridge. I've summered in Front Royal and Goochland County among others during my lifetime. This painting is a commission. Someone, a old classmate from High School of Bishop Ireton asked me to paint his own 'hogan' cabin in the woods. Which I was glad to do. But it sure took me back to all those summers I spent with my own Dad and the Cub Scouts in the woods sleeping in a 'hogan' like this one. In our gifted life this was called 'ruffing it', or 'camping out' for the weekend or longer. Its kind of funny but all those times including times of late I've 'camped out' with enjoyment because it was no problem to do so since we were indoors for the most part. This painting reminded me that how often I've had the gift of sleeping indoors protected from the elements. What a mem

A friend asked me to repaint his place of fixing cars. He moved his garage. I had painted his earlier manifestation and so now he wanted a redux on his new spot. I said "sure'. This is his new spot with added baydoors and newly hired mechanics. He moving up.

Many times I cross these tracks to see what the postmaster has done to her little PO out near the tracks. The tracks go all the way down to Orlando Florida where the train stops and goes through switching cars. I always wonder what this PO looked like in its heyday with the 3,000 or so residents who worked the soapstone quarry. For now it doesn't see much usefulness other than its quaint beauty and oddity. This is the oil I did of it with a visitor from Germany of all places who stopped in for a look. He was taken with it, and had a look around and through the windows. He was a hiker and he asked what lay beyond. I let him know about Schuyler and the Waltons. He had no idea what I was talking about but decided to take the six mile hike to the home of 'John-boy' just the same. The oil is small in size. Perhaps 14 inches by 22 inches, but it holds up.

This painting is an oil and 30/30/30 medium on gessoed cotton duck canvas. I build it and prepared the surface w gesso. Gesso was developed in the 1950's as a mixture of titanium paint and rabbit skin glue to seal the surface so the oils done destroy the material of cotton over time. Earlier painters had to do mush more work to prepare a canvas for painting with more work of applying glue and a primer paint. Today its all in one. I tend to put three layers of gesso on to really seal the surface from any leaks over time. The painting here is one of a country dwelling that is now abandoned. It just off of Rt.29 which is a main north/south highway just above the town of Lovingston Va. Many homes are abandoned here in Central Virginia. I have had no problem finding them alongside the roads that twist through the back roads here in Central Virginia. I like painting them due to the fact that they are the history of those souls who once lived here and have moved