Landscape of Virginia

The proverbial home of Earl Hammner called to me to be painted. He was the author of the Americana book "The Waltons" and also the script writer for the TV show that followed. The TV show was widely seen during the 1980's. In this town of Schuyler where I now live E. Hammner is an icon and a museum has been established out of what was the elementary school in Schuyler. The museum is devoted to that TV show and its actors, memorabilia, plus a WWII museum added on to it. Folks who own the house now give tours to the Hammer home 9am to 5pm daily with only Sundays off. Schuyler is just off Rt 6 on Rt 800 (or Schuyler Rd) which is just east of Rt 29 and 30 miles south of Charlottesville (the home of The University of Virginia). I felt like I had been ignoring painting this home long enough and when I stopped into Ike's General Store to buy the local paper (the Daily Progress) some asked me if I ever painted it. Then it hit me: "I ought to do so, and ...

Life and death in the country can all happen on one plot of land. This painting of two barns has another added part to the composition that I left out due to it sitting alone by itself off to the right of the smaller barn. Four graves lye not far from that outbuilding. To me that spoke of family ties to the land where the barns now lye abandoned and falling apart in ongoing decay. I chose to leave it out. I felt the barns were a testament enough to those who worked that piece of land. This place is on a back country road that is bucolic and full of flowers. I feel good whenever I pass by it on my way home using that particular old roadway. Its a place that called out to me to be remembered in paint, and so this work came about.

I do admire drawings that one can easily see are done for the fun of it and nothing more than that. This is one of those kind of ad-hoc committee of my mind getting together and just throwing out something completely nonsensical. I hope you enjoy it. And yes I do admire R. Crumb's artwork and I wish I had met him. He lived in North Philly in the 1970's and I lived in West Philly during the same time period. His work is the funniest, most observant of city life then I've ever seen.

A concert hall is always of interest in the memories who have seen starpower performances take place in its interior. Because of that fact I have painted this canvas using the sight of 'South Street' bar/music venue as a subject for its surface. This building and the pink warehouse beside it are both etched into the memories of music lovers of the city of Charlottesville. The pink warehouse was the sight for practice sessions of the Dave Mathews Band in its early days when it played in local stages. The 'South Street' bar has drawn many bands of late and is a fixture in the local music scene. Both buildings are on a street nearby the railroad tracks and were used to hold commercial products from trains delivered to this city. I found working all the color in the bricks to be the challenge. The windows also were daunting but could be worked into a suitable appearance once I put myself into the task mode of using changing color for each pane of glass within...

Overshadowed by urban growth is this restaurant on the tracks that has this big green monolith beside it. The restaurant is a popular one. Many of our towns folks frequent it. The new monster next to it has an overwhelming presence when anyone passes by this area. The city wants and can use the new blood of this structure but it is a dramatic change none the less to the city skyline. But what goes on in our land is growth and sometimes it covers the quaint that was beloved and cherished by many for the newness of expansion of our economic engine. This happened with this situation and has happened in the American cityscape over the last hundred and fifty years. Nothing new under the sun, just more of the same...change happens and one must become adjusted to its manifestation. In this case, its huge swallowing up the quaint and small.

A bright morning on the streets of Charlottesville one will find many people walking on its main avenues' sidewalks to downtown. West Main street connects the downtown city (where most of the private businesses and government offices are located) and the rest of the city. But many people choose to live in other sections of the city like the black area of 'Page Street Corridor' or the Fifeville area or JPA (Jefferson Park Ave) or in the student apartment area of 14th St. Wherever it is west of the downtown has two main streets that reach the downtown area. The choice many make is to 'bus it' or 'walk it' via W. Main Street and/or Preston Ave. If one chooses W. Main Street it is lined by many small businesses and bars/ restaurants where this city gets its charm from, or so it seems to me. I have been spending my time during the last couple of years photographing many of its buildings in order to make an effort to paint them. It seemed to me t...

A easy cross town route used by many townsfolk is the 10th street pathway. Located on this street is 'The Import Car Store' which had for many years featured a plenteous amount of foreign/domestic classic cars. The store building was recently swallowed up by a new hotel/residential center put up for increased student attendance at the University of Virginia, but before that happened I was able to snap of photo of it. I used it as a model for this painting.