Landscape of Virginia

I enjoy some fun stuff with my caricatures or so I think of them as caricatures. They really aren't about anyone famous or anyone in particular so I don't know if they really qualify as caricatures but they are comic drawings of some kind, so I call them caricatures just because I can. I am truly thankful that I can draw these guys without someone putting me in the looney bin, I've been their and I didn't enjoy it much even if lot's of people tried to make it a good time. Losing one's liberties is never a fun thing so why pretend it was beneficial for me. In another way it was a learning experience because I learned that I could draw in any situation. I drew caricatures in their just to make cigarette money, which I did with the help of a guy who gave me mattes that had been rejected from the framing shop they ran on the campus. I took those frames and drew pencil drawings on some good BFK Rives paper then mounted them in those rejected frames. Th...

Bike Rides always perk me up, two days ago I got out and I am still thinking about how nice of a ride it was for me. Heading out on the Rivana Trail down at the river was truly a delightful time. The air was cool. The river was flowing well, and the light was that special type of winter's light that comes in so low and yellow from the horizon at dusk. I brought my camera and stopped a couple of times to take photos. That ride took me out from the gym and back into reality of how beautiful it is around here if only you go out looking for it. What fun huh? I'll tell you I enjoyed my ride. I even saw a friend running in the other direction from the way I was headed. It wasn't such a bad thing to have a warm day in the beginning of March to break that indoor feeling of being cramped up and drying out to being full of life's warmth again.

I just finished another in my Japanese Experience paintings yesterday evening, it looks like a good painting of a Buddhist Celebration Parade. I've enjoyed paintings from my past spent in Japan when I was their with my parents during the 1950's. I certainly never thought I would be painting my childhood. When I was small and living in that foreign country, I found the people to be really nice to me and the land was very beautifully kept. People would go out into the streets to sweep the dirt just to clean up their area outside their home just because it was needed. The people had a true commitment towards the public good of the community and I noticed that even at the young age that I was during the 1950's. This painting I finished is bright and cheerful because it is a depiction of an event where the people were celebrating the beginning of a New Year, and they were hopeful. I will have a photo of it up on my site soon.

The day went well, many things got done. I see how it's gott'n warmer but yet even if it's due to our human activity it still feels ok outside on my bicycle going thru traffic. It was cool, not cold, with a sense of warmed just over the next hill. Here, it's about fifty five to sixty degrees, very comfortable on the bike today. It's nice to be able to go to the gym but even better to bike outside in the real world. I enjoy it to no end. I did another pen and ink last night. It takes about two sittings to finish one. But this deals with characters out in the middle of the street all looking and pointing elsewhere to heal there troubled minds and feelings....when it's all really happening right inside and under there noses. As it is often said, if you want to find it just look under your nose, it's their, right their. So most people spend there evenings watching the latest TV program while I prefer to sit at my desk with pen and paper having fun, ...

Today I was going thru the motions but really feeling kind of like a stuffed bureaucrat only this breed of bureaucrats had on a new set of clothes. In as much as they use to wear a white collar I had on a long sleeved T-shirt and gray Smith Mountain Rock pants. But it's all a learning experience for me, so just because I knew my role is training new office workers in many jobs that others find too tedious to do, I am hopeful that these jobs are those entree type of our jobs for our students. I've asked our students if they like this kind of work, and they love it actually one student said he felt very fortunate to have gott'n to work at this job. The jobs take place in an billing department of a local private hospital. The people are nice and friendly plus it's a good clean environment. The equipment these students use is modern technical stuff which is great for our students to be using in order to be up to standards in the workplace. It's a good pla...

I've been playing around with my pen and inks. I have a lot of fun with them. It's my playground when I have a bucket and shovel standing next to a pile of sand. Or I can dig a deep hole in the dirt with my toy trucks hauling it away. I like using the older nib and holder set of pens. They were the style my Dad used and he gave me his set when I was young, and I really enjoyed drawing with them. With nibs you have to dip the pen in a bottle of ink or they will dry up and you'll loose your linework. It takes a little getting use to in order to work with them effectively, but you can get into them and get use to how they work. It takes a little testing but the affect is great and there is nothing that can take there place in the shape and form of lines that one can get using them. I love using them. One can use different pen nib heads to get different effects of line when one is drawing, and the variety is unique to the pen head or nib one uses. I found onl...

Last week I finished my painting of a Japanese Priest doing a spiritual energy life flowing dance in front of a Buddhist portable shrine. My dad took this photo and I built this painting on it's character and his surroundings. It took a good while to make this painting, but in the long run as with most good things it was worth it. Today being a nice warm sunny cool winter's day I got out and photographed it. Then I did sharpen it up with a photoshop program but overall it looks as it does in person. I am thankful that I can get it out to the public so quickly. I will begin working on another Japanese photo by my father soon. I made another canvas yesterday and I selected a photo to work on last night. If all goes well I will be showing another new canvas sometime soon. But for now, this painting will have to do.