Landscape of Virginia

This painting is an oil and 30/30/30 medium on gessoed cotton duck canvas. I build it and prepared the surface w gesso. Gesso was developed in the 1950's as a mixture of titanium paint and rabbit skin glue to seal the surface so the oils done destroy the material of cotton over time. Earlier painters had to do mush more work to prepare a canvas for painting with more work of applying glue and a primer paint. Today its all in one. I tend to put three layers of gesso on to really seal the surface from any leaks over time. The painting here is one of a country dwelling that is now abandoned. It just off of Rt.29 which is a main north/south highway just above the town of Lovingston Va. Many homes are abandoned here in Central Virginia. I have had no problem finding them alongside the roads that twist through the back roads here in Central Virginia. I like painting them due to the fact that they are the history of those souls who once lived here and have moved ...

This truck was on the side of a barn near Rio road and JW Parkway just outside of the Charlottesville city line in the shadow of an old farm building. Charlottesville had a ruff countryside really close to the cityline and the County of Albemarle. This truck was simply abandoned on farmland owned by a family that had a farm where the extended city just grew up around it. The truck must have just broke down and been abandoned and as country people seem to do just leave their trash (big pieces at least) right in place. The eyesore of it is simple to be ignored as country people seem to do, mostly due to the cost of putting such large items into the landfill being so high. I'm sure this GMC saw much use but now 'its toast'. It sits still and rusting slowly. Just great as a subject for a still life. I used my camera though so I could work on it in the comfort of my home's frontroom.

This particular barn is an outback building to a house that is just over the City line of Charlottesville. Its nearby Pen Park only on the other side of Rio Rd. The group of older farm buildings are just sitting their in the decaying state while the land around it is being developed. My quest is to capture them in oils before they simply fall down or are plowed down by bulldoser in order to make way for more construction. As the norm has become many of Charlottesville's antiquity is coming down to make way for the newcomers moving here. Ever since Charlottesville has been named as one of the best locations in which to retire building has taken off. I would like it to remain just the way its been for the forty years I've been here but I realize that isn't what occurs in American culture or in a money growing atmosphere. The good thing is that most of the homes I've seen are environmentally smart designs, focusing on not making so much waste or leaking heat ...

"Crumbling Barn" was taken from the photos I took along Rio Rd just off of the J Warner Parkway. This Charlottesville location seems like its in the deep country but in reality its just over the city line of Charlottesville/Albemarle County. I enjoyed the quality of these broken buildings and I am sure to be doing more as time allows.

Some paintings that I have begun making are themes from the country around this area. I found a group of buildings with 'old country barns' as the content. One would think by looking at them that they were way out in 'nowhere land' in Middle Virginia but they aren't: this painting is of a barn located at Rio Road and the John Warner Parkway. They are just outside of Charlottesville city line. They are on a hillside just over the berm at that intersection. I selected one to see how it would work for me and I believe I will add on some more effort to including more from the photo shoot I did last week. The photo shoot was a time where I parked my car and walked across a grassy field up to them and began photographing. There were three main buildings and a truck, with some farm plowing equipment beside them. I took some photos and now I am working from home using my laptop while I paint behind an easel. I like the result and will try doing some more late...

I have some happiness to report: I've photographed a few of my favorite barns that were a stuck in my memory from driving in Charlottesville since I got their in 1977. These were on the side of Rio Road just on the edge of town (in the 1970's that is cuz what is the edge of town is no more) I saw them riding around in a Region Ten van as we went out to visit Fashion Square to walk around with no money to spend. They were really some of the nicest buildings with much character and no one seemed to notice them, but I did. And after living out in the country for a while I've learned how rare and nice the really are to see as barn styles go. So I finally got it together to do a photo shoot of them. I timidly walked up to them on some field of long grass a picked spots that showed the details in the way they were built. The wood is falling off and holes are showing up in their walls so I don't think they will be standing much longer. I snapped and composed an...

The students needed a Guadalajara nearby them. All the other restaurants of that version are across town or out of reach to those who would most benefit from them. The student aren't made of money or time as some tend to think. A quick affordable decent quality meal is what this local version of the Mexican styled restaurant gives to the American eatery scene in this little college town (that is growing quickly) in its selection of places to go. This one opened up a few years ago and it seems to be going well. It was an object of interest to me due to its coloring of its outside walls and its sign up over its doorway. I liked the loud but nicely painted visual impact on someone driving by it for the first time. It catches the eye in a good way. So I've painted it.