Mennonite Church in Schuyler: A Stone Building That Sits Above Most Others

   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.


  



   

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What Has Worked;

Post High: "At the Days' End"

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This painting is of the school where I work on the weekdays. It features a program to help special need students to move smoothly from the public school atmosphere into the work a day world we live in. It is an oil painting, and it is done from the perspective from where I stand directing the buses and cars in and out of our parking lot of Post High. Post High is part of Albemarle High School although it is located a few miles away from that high school. As an artist I am not unlike a lot of authors in that I am reflecting on my past and what I know well. I know this scene well because I stand their so much every morning and every evening as the school closes. In as much that I see it so much I have a good recall of it. I did this painting from my home miles away. I used my memory to pickout the content and details of the painting. The students who study here are 18 to 22 years old and I am showing them streaming out of the building at the end of the day. Some will s...
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Street Drama

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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...
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The First Structure in Nelson County of European Settlers

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 I asked this local resident just what that old wooden structure was standing over yonder near some parked cars, she informed me that the wooden stack was the earliest home for Nelson County Residents back in the times when this county was established.   I couldn't believe it, you mean it was of that kind of historical value and it was simply a stand alone building in the backyard of one of Schuyler's residents with no markings of its significant value?   I had to paint it.   So I snapped a photo of it and took it home, then got to work.   Its simply the size of a small compact car only made of weathered wood.      To paint it took little time due to its small size.   I believe I will paint it again due to the feeling that it is owed some more attention that I have given it.   I also cropped some of the building off so I want to include that part in the next painting.
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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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Salute to Saul Steinberg

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Drawing from the mind alone can be both revealing, and bring out some hidden surprises which no one would expect to see. I begin with a simple figure or object then add whatever comes to mind beside it, then onto the next mental echo transcribed into liner form. Its really just me having fun. Many of my longtime artistic admirers see these as some of my best work. I myself see them as an unwinding from the riggers of rendering a landscape or some other more stringent artform. This particular work is in the mindset of a New Yorker magazine artist who often used rubber stamps that he made himself to create and image of ink figures in a setting. This artist was Saul Steinberg He was an enjoyable influence upon me as a young art student living in Philadelphia. Not that I often saw his artwork or read the New Yorker but ever so often I would run into an exhibit of some of his art in a gallery show or a museum would be featuring his penwork, I took a great liking to his style ...
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