Double Decker in Gordonsville

Gordonsville, Virginia is another small town near Charlottesville. Its center is larger and more developed than Barboursville. There are touristy shops and a couple of expensive restaurants there. There is also a cluster of historic nineteenth century buildings which have been renovated inside and are currently serving as offices for a corporation. This double porched building is one of them. I like the double porch design a lot. This Southern classic protects occupants from the hot sun and gives them an opportunity to sit out on a porch upstairs, away from the dust of the street but still able to have a clear view. I sat at a sidewalk cafe table to do this drawing. It is Pitt fine point black pen on a sketchbook page. This drawing was done the "proper" academic-art way, on site outdoors with no further modifications or additions in the studio.

Back from Appalachia wine tour

This is Barboursville, or at least part of it. It's a tiny town north of Charlottesville, Virginia. It's also the home of Barboursville Winery, one of the many wineries I visited in my 10-day tour of Virginia and Tennessee. I have just returned home from this wine-soaked vacation, and the drawing you see above is the latest and last of all the drawings and sketches I did on this voyage. This scene is to me the perfect rendition of nostalgic Americana: a sleepy town street with porches and a few commercial buildings, with a train track running through it. A few times every day the noise and clatter of a train passing through shakes the town, and then as it recedes the town returns to its quiet rest. Note the Masonic flag flying beneath the American flag; the Freemasons have a lodge there and own some of the buildings on that side of the street.

This little section of Barboursville is also home to a couple of sophisticated art galleries, and "Muscle Car Paradise," a private collection of perfectly preserved sports cars from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. This is the work of one wildly rich collector, but it is occasionally opened to the public so that the cars can be admired. A couple of these vehicles in less perfect condition were parked in front of the museum buildings. See what hidden treasures I can find while touring through the hilly land of Virginia! Over the next days I'll show you more of my drawings done on-site in various locations. This is done in brown ink marker and colored pencil, about 10" x 8".

Open Neighborhood

There are nine registers at my Trader Joe's and each one will get an open/closed sign. Each side will be painted with something from the neighborhood including the big-city Tysons Corner area. This means 18 different paintings on these wooden plaques. As I explained in a recent post each of these plaques will be mounted on hinges so they flip up (thus blocking the register path) to show "Closed" and down to show "Open." Some of these will be day/night scenes, where the day scene is the "Open" and the night scene is the "Closed." Other "Closed" signs will have other images. The one you see above depicts a historic farm house which is on the grounds of "Cherry Hill Park" and the city hall of Falls Church. It is used for events and is not occupied as a home.

I have depicted the "Hole in the Wall" bookstore more than once, including a portrait of the place for its owners. This is one of my favorite stores in Falls Church. It has lasted almost 30 years. I go there often to buy comic books and other goodies from their collection. It has survived against the odds and deserves a place in the neighborhood collection I am depicting for Trader Joe's. Note that this piece is kind of in a "comic book" style and the "Open" is done in a word balloon like a comic book. Similarly I gave the old farmhouse "Open" a nineteenth-century type style.

Readers: The By-Product will be on hiatus for the next 10 days or so while I go on vacation. I might be able to post one or two entries if I get the chance. I will be traveling in Virginia and Tennessee, visiting wineries and towns and countryside, making drawings and sipping wine and making more drawings. So if things go well I will have plenty of Americana to post when I return.

Exoweather

It's hurricane season on an unnamed exoplanet. This planet follows a complex orbit around a double star system, as well as being in a nebula of glowing gas. There aren't just four seasons on this world, but an intricate succession of not only water weather and changes in radiation levels as well. The planet is entering into a tropical phase in this picture, and you can see a large cyclonic system moving through the heavy atmosphere. Any life which would evolve here would be very different from life back on Earth. The title is "Tropic of Capricorn," referring to a region of Earth's southern hemisphere.

"Tropic of Capricorn" is acrylic on illustration board, 10" x 7", November 1991.

Orange Line Sign

This is a sign for Trader Joe's. It will go on one of the nine register counters to tell customers that it is open for business. The back side of the sign will say, "Closed." The sign will be mounted so it can flip up to signify closed register, and then down to say "Open." I am not quite sure what the engineering is going to look like, but I think the sign will be mounted (from the top) with a door hinge.

You haven't seen much Trader Joe's work from me this year, and that's because I haven't produced very much. I have been shifted to cash register work for part of my shift, and have worked almost entirely on smaller signs such as template price tags. I have only recently been assigned larger and more permanent signs. The reasons for this are complex but I hope that I continue to work on pictorial signs. The manager has requested that these open/closed signs show familiar landmarks and features of our area. One important thing here is the Metro train, the "Orange Line," which goes from Fairfax County into Washington DC and Maryland. So the Metro is on the sign. I have also depicted memorable buildings in the area. The style is a bit looser than what I am used to, but it is not in a gallery, it's under a sales counter at about stomach level.

"Metro Open" is acrylic and other media on a wooden plaque, about 12" x 8".

Woodsy Watercolor

I rarely get to do watercolor on site outdoors. Unlike the Urban Sketchers who seem to have a way to do it, I can't get the logistics right. I want to put my paints on a table or some surface, and my paper on another surface, and then I spill the water, or I can't put the kit back together after I use it, etc. And worst of all, the bugs are attracted not just to me but to anything with water or moisture. In August and then into September, vicious yellowjackets make it impossible for me to do anything outside, because they immediately find me and zoom right at me, and I've been stung a couple of times while trying to do art outdoors.

Therefore this painting which was done almost exactly 11 years ago is one of my more successful attempts at true "plein air" painting. And I must admit that I finished it in the studio when I got home. Dunn Loring Park is a very nice woodsy park right in the middle of a busy city. It's good for birdwatching and walking and recreation but as I said, as soon as you try to do anything outdoors in August, the yellowjackets come after you.

I am always fascinated by forests and the pattern of leaves and colors they show. I could paint lots of forest paintings, if I could figure out a way to put myself in the environment without the environment attacking me.

"Dunn Loring Park," watercolor and pen, about 8" x 10", August 6, 1999.

The Observers

Maybe they're from out of town and have come to visit us and observe us from near earth orbit. Or maybe we've finally reached our destination, an Earthlike planet, and are observing it from orbit rather than landing on it recklessly. In any case, a spherical spacecraft is always a good design. That sphere, though, does not have any stealth or cloaking adaptations and if it's there, we, or they, will see it right away. Let's hope it's a peaceful situation.

"The Observers" is acrylic on illustration board, 10" x 7", November 1991.