Landscape of Virginia

A new painting was finished last weekend, it was worked on for my full spring break from work. It was quite enjoyable to work on although it had it's moments I felt like I accomplished something good from doing it. It's not exactly the same as the photograph it's taken from but it's ok for what it is. I'm kind of thinking people are having so many problems from just what the combustible engine is doing to this world maybe looking back at a society that didn't have too many engines at the time this painting is done might be somewhat revealing to we who are living is such a polluting time as this one. Anyway, I hope you enjoy seeing Kamahura Japan in the 1954 era, pre-modernization but post war era. I don't think there is too much of a record from that era in Japan.

I took a trip to Northwestern Virgina yesterday and I had the good fortune to stop in Upperville, Virgina. It's on the John Mosby Highway (Route 50) which runs down the Main Street for the little town. It is certainly something worth stopping for an taking in the older buildings in that city because many of them are made of hand laid stones with some mortar between them. The library is about the size of my apartment, certainly not huge, but it is still in operation as an active library. The houses are all typical of early Virginian styles of homes. In fact it seemed to be that they had a about every style of house that one might find in Virginia right their on Main Street. I did stop and paint one of the stone homes, it had been added onto so it was a little bigger than just one three story home. It was a challenge to put all those stones into the painting but I imagine it was even harder for those that laid those stones into the house itself. It was a very impressiv...

Today we met. The organizational meetings of this self-help organization I belong to happened today. Boy people can really beat a dead horse sometimes and other times people seem to ignore what others or even groups have decided in order to question authority or even whatever is accepted as a done deal. It's truly a learning curve in many of these meeting, new people take a while before they get it, whereas those who have been doing these meetings for a while certainly have the advantage but one only learns by doing there homework or jumping into the fire and seeing where/how they get burnt. Many times I find what I have to say, is little but needed at this point, just because I have been thru these meetings for many years now....and I can help out by letting people know what has happened in years gone by (if I can remember it well enough). Thing is to remain focused on what is the fair and correct procedure to follow I find to be of great need in these meetings. Many pe...

Working has never been going so well, but I feel that even though our little corner of the world is going well that the cost of living today is going to soon have an impact on us all. With trucks spending over a thousand dollars for one fill-up we'd better get into local food sources. Some are already planning to plant a garden this summer for the very first time to offset the grocery-store prices that are already showing signs of strain. In a word it's better to buy local than to expect to get it cheap at the nation's grocery-store chains because that isn't going to last or so it seems to this little guy. Thankfully, our art supplies are staying about the same but with shipping using gas and oil products no doubt that it will change with the times like everything else. I am gonn'a not pretend that everything is alright just because I can take care of myself. I know we are in this as a nation of free people and not as individuals just trying to "get b...

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.

Working on new paintings is a real joy even though one may look at it as work sometimes when a person gets down to the knitty gritty and does some art, its not so bad as it seems before you get to work on it. I don't know about you but my fears often paralyzed me and kept me achieving my greatest dreams. Once I took things in small pieces by not looking at how far I had to go, but instead working on what I had in front of me, I was able to get much more finished if I just tried to get started on it. Not matter what I do now I enjoy my life by just doing what I need to do for today and I let everything else take care of itself later on. In this way I am not overwhelmed by big projects or big paintings or an overwhelming task. The Japanese paintings are a good example of this, I looked at all my Dad's photos and thought that there was a lot of work to do, how was I to ever get it all done. After realizing just that I put it aside and just got to work on starting just...

My cat Oreo is getting more and more involved in our life at home. She has gott'n use to a routine and gets bothered if I deviate from it. She sulks but for a little while so it's not really that bad. And thank God she doesn't hold a grudge, she's very forgiving of me so far. I accidentally sat on her when she was on my black and purple computer chair but she moved and fast to get out of the way. I had her a year and one month, and she still seems to find things to like about this apartment. She's doing better than me as far as that goes. She spends a lot more time here than I do, but she finds stuff to do or watch or eat or places to rest. I like her. She's a gift I don't take for granted due to knowing what it's like to live alone for many years without being able to have a pet. Thanks Landlady for allowing me the joy of my pet Oreo .