Landscape of Virginia

Having coffee the other day in Scottsville, I brought out my pen and drawing book then got to work on this inkspot. I enjoyed the time, and I was daunted by the overwhelming variety of brickwork that I needed to finish. In order to do it right I needed not to let anything out. I know that it's not quality of them but the quality of the bricks and how I sought to give each one its own character as I pen'd them in. It was a task that took some time, but I had the time on that particular day so I got to work. I guess it was an hour or perhaps and hour and thirty later on that I was done. I did hit it up a bit at home later on that week but it didn't need much more. I plan to go back again sometime to work on other vistas at the nice wooden tabletop in Blane's Books and Coffee.

Its been a long time since I posted anything: I am still alive and still working on one particular commission of Mincer's on the Corner section of Charlottesville. It's going well and its taking time but the payoff is the better quality that comes with attention to detail and quality of content I am putting into this work. Its a process. The better and longer time I put into attention to that process the better the end product of artwork. I am near completion. I also have bought a new scanner/printer/fax machine which will allow me to post pen and ink drawings once again. So all in all, I will have something to post once I get it together to finish this painting, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps the day after tomorrow...all in good time, all in all its a good time doing this one.

This painting is the last painting done in the series of work that I began two months ago in June. The painting is taken from a photograph I snapped on the downtown mall here in Central Virginia at the small college town of Charlottesville. You will run into a lot of comments about Charlottesville from me due to the fact I've spent most of the last forty years within its boundaries. I now have escaped to a smaller community. Anyway America is on parade everyday on Charlottesville's downtown bricked over Main Street which is now known as 'the downtown mall' with its stores and open air bricked over plein air eateries n bookstores plus it has its share of coffee shops. The painting I did was to give a snippet of its culture that passes over it on any given afternoon/evening. This painting is a oil painting and its large. It took all of three weeks to do it. I painted at least two n a half hours a day and at most eight hours 'n a day of work time in order ...

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 ...