Landscape of Virginia

Here in Central Virginia we are lucky to have a few outlying areas that hold on to old community styled living and such is this homesite of Crozet. Its just west of Charlottesville and its been there for over a century. Established as a community for those men who were building a railroad through the Blue Ridge mountains it housed many a miner and there respective families. There are two paintings I did of this little town and actual more, I believe the painting logged in just before this was also of that fare city. It draws a lot of attention due to its size and charm and I guess its cultural life. There is an excellent pizza shop which is known for its award winning pies and also a little meeting place for intellectuals that sells books and has artshows. I found it an interesting little spot to paint. I did my best to involve the dilapidated railroad station that is now defunked but still standing. It took has an individual charm to it at least in being a nice structure...

Since I've painted the buildings at the intersection of the stop light in the small town of Crozet before this wasn't a completely new and daunting task. I began by photographing the location from the exact spot where I set up my easel and painted it last year. The challenge was going to fit all those buildings into a much smaller canvas and still get the detail needed to be viable work. It took time to do it right, but in the end I think I got a better product out of my extra time than if I rushed myself. You can judge this for yourself by going back to June of 2014 in my blogs and check it out. Or just take my word for it. This painting was a work with very careful paint application. I took my time and only set small goals each day to complete. I didn't rush it or do a marathon painting session to just 'get it done' rather I worked mostly two and a half hours a day. By doing this it took a little longer than I am use to but I felt a lot better at...

The best part of today's digital age for this painter is being able to work indoors with images. I now set up indoors more often. However last summer I was hauling everything outdoors in order to paint. When I painted outdoors it was nice to see people and strike up a conversation with the public while I worked in my oils onsite. But the help of being nearby my creature comforts of my home won me over this year. Now I am working from photos I have taken outside and then put up on my laptop as a screensaver which shortcuts the need for heading outdoors. Even as a smaller image I still think I am 'getting it right', but I have yet to hear from others as to whether or not they think I am doing as well or better in my 'plein air' paintings of resent times. I certainly am not a fan of working out in the heat as I have in the past but working from the seclusion of my studio does have its appeal. Temperature control, cool indoor running water (and such), being ...

Sometimes a painting doesn't fare so well in transporting it to art events and such, such was the case with this painting I did recently of the Nelson County Courthouse in Lovingston, Va. I was taking it into a show along with another rather large painting, and I laid it flat facing upwards with another painting over it and a cloth between the two. When it came time to take it out, I removed the top one and then pulled off the cloth to discover pieces of thread and 'stuff' (there just isn't another word for it) were sticking to the canvas's paint. It stopped me in my tracks only to think to myself "that painting was too wet to travel" and I guess it was. I was anxious to get my work into the summer show that I put aside all other considerations about it's availability to travel safely and be handled safely. I won't do that again. So I sandpapered it down. Then I began to paint, or rather repaint the surface over again. In doing ...

A small work I put together in the last few days is coming from a photo taken in Scottsville, Va. I am working moreso on photos this summer indoors to see if I can convincingly operate on oils out of my front living-room. So far so good. I think I've overcome what happens to too many 'photo realist' (and I don't count myself as one I am simply using a photograph to work from) in that there final product has a very flat quality to its depth as a painting. I'm not against photo realist, by no means I like there work and the clarity that some achieve is unbeatable : not including someone such as Vermeer who's brilliance outshines us even today with his clarity of his images in oil. The thing I want to avoid in painting from a photograph is not seeing around the angle or missing an items volume as an object in space. An item with volume is one that has the intent of roundness or a 3-dimensional shape implied in its rendering, that is what visual work I wa...

Older buildings can often be unkempt however if they are given a coat of paint once in a while it can sometimes be enough to preserve them enough them as a legacy. Such was the situation with the unique structures in Lovingston. These three ( I include the one is shadow on the left in blue) were once vibrant shops and the center point of the town. The one on the left in shadow of blue was a drug store years ago but now stands unoccupied and delinquent. Sure the taxes on it are being paid but in all honesty it would take a lot of work before someone could live in it or run a gainful enterprising shop within its walls. Sure it could be done but these buildings are on there way down. I painted them because of the designs within them and how the simple look of the three floors with their wood trim work truly is 'good aesthetics' and because of that I wanted them to be remembered in an oil of mine. With that said, I present my work on 'Front Street' of Lovingsto...

Life's interest often takes us to the law and where the law is practiced. Recently there was a trial where it drew statewide interest due to the unusual manner in which the prosecution held its case. They didn't have the right of habeas corpus to carry on a conviction with yet the trail went on, and in the end the man was convicted of capital murder. There seems to have been enough evidence to convince the jury of the man's guilt. It was only the second time in Virginia criminal law cases that this has happened and it happened here in Nelson County. The Courthouse where this trial took place stands alone on top of a hill (the highest point in the city of Lovingston, Va.) The courthouse has a newer extension put onto its northside but if one sees it from one spot where I painted this canvas you can't see it. But what you do see is the old structure in all its grandeur. Such was the place from which I chose to paint this rather unremarkable yet noticeable b...