John Holland House

      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 linseed oil in order to draw in the image.  The mixture had to be thin so the paint would work as wash or gouche'.   This way I came to understand how to blend colors and how to blend colors  and I could find out which colors turned into a real ugly mess.   If I didn't thin the paint I ended up with a big blob of paint that didn't define or show any form of shape of anything, it was just a big mess..  

This painting got better when I push onward after laying down the initial image and I got into working the paint.  I think its a likeable painting.



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What Has Worked;

Painting in the Public Domain

I've been busy painting outdoors. Yesterday, I packed up my easel and paints put on my backpack with the easel on it and walked to the downtown mall. I arrived about nine thirty am and got to work after setting it all up. Many people stopped to comment and offer supportive comments about the start of the painting. I was working on the Miller's bar and buildings headed westward from their on, I included a couple of people in it too boot, the thing was I was filmed by some group that came back later and had me sign a release form and I was photographed by tourist and others who just happened upon me while I was working on my painting. My work progressed to a good stopping point and I plan to finish what I've done at home. Some people to whom I talked I never saw because I was paying attention to what I was painting not to whom I was talking to at the time. I was looking at the buildings and what I was doing on the canvas so I have very little idea as to what or who the
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Walking Along W. Main St.

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I found the scene along West Main is soon to change into an newer style cityscape of brick and glass with less ornamentation to its buildings. With this in mind I photographed some West Main Street buildings in the hopes of finding interesting scenes to paint. The signage is all a part of West Main and in that thought I painted this one with its graphic street crossing signage featured prominently in the picture plane. I highlighted the bricks in intense reds and developed the windows in a bizarre abstract display for each one of them. Each featuring one color being themed inside its frame as if each window display had its own abstract painting going on inside its area. Its all for the fun of it, I play with what is being viable to the view when I can. Nothing ventured nothing gained. It was nice how this one came together piece by piece with each painting session. Intense color came about as I developed its' scene on the sidewalk windows. I was going to bring in
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Wyant's Store in Whitehall,Va.

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  It is noted that Whitehall Virginia is a throwback to an earlier time, a time when people knew who you were whenever one was to shop in the store such as this....its something found in the rural areas of this state and not so much in the cities of Virginia. This is one of my paintings of such a place, where the guys inside it are all gathered talking about what's news in the area over some snack food of one kind or another. They were all very kind to me once I stopped in to see the inside of this store once I was done painting for the day. I enjoyed working on this one...it is the second of the same subject, the store was interesting to work on so I took a second look as it were and painted it again. It's wasn't so much that I didn't like the first painting of this country store it was more that I enjoyed working on it so I thought I would prolong the joyfullness by doing it a second time. I'm sure you have no idea what I am talking about..well just have a
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Firecycle in Kamahura: 1954 or So

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Its been a long time coming but I finished another in my Japanese style paintings this past weekend. It's of a fire cycle, they didn't have enough money to build a fire truck although they did have a few in the station instead they made a cycle which could fight fires. I thought it was kind of unique and looked very different that anything I'd seen before so I painted it. Using one of my Dad's black and white photos I did a rendering of it. I enjoyed working with the strong red colors even though the photo is in Black and White I could remember some of the colors involved in this vehicle so I went ahead and played with it. It took a good deal of work, but I continued on with it until it was completed. I just couldn't let go of it very long while I was painting it. I guess I did another marathon painting session last weekend. I know I felt it after I was done.
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Rockfish PO ;the painting

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These railroads around here are unique, they send trains by in the middle of the night and whale on their lone whistles coming around the bend in the middle of the night. One stop for the trains was near here. The rail stop for Rockfish and Schuyler was about four miles away and the mail use to be put off from the trail mailcar onto an official Post Office located at the place where the train crossed the Rockfish River. The stop still exist but the train no longer makes any stop here, there is a Post Office now in our lovely town of Schuyler, Va. The hut and it is nothing larger than a 'hut' is no doubt where the mailbags use to be stored. The hut is still standing due to some committed locals who see to it that the Rockfish Post Office has a fresh coat of paint and is decorated for holidays like Halloween and other days of significance. I felt a need to paint this scene due to its ongoing visa of the tracks disappearing around the bend. I loved the perspective ang
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