Friday, May 19, 2006

Across from Best Buy



If you have spent any time in Richmond, or in any rural country side turned suburban metropolis like Downtown Short Pump, you have seen this place. It is the last hold out of the by gone era. This large farm has sat across the street from the Best Buy, Home Depot, Kohls, Target, and Walmart for almost 15 years. It is really no longer funtional though you can see all of the cast off functionality from the road. The grain silo and the multiple out buildings must have been useful at some point. Now there is a four lane stop light standing by, waiting for the road that will lead into this farm turned shopping center. It is beautiful, sad, inevitable, and somehow I really like the rythum of the stop lights against the sky. There is a backhoe parked in the grass 50 yards from the fence as I write this. There is a large gaping hole in the field to the right of the stop lights. I went out there the other day and took some photos so that I could finish this painting. I could hear it calling me.

Acrylic on Canvas
16" x 20"
$250

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Fulton Gas Works



Sometimes I think that buildings and places speak to me because they know I listen.

The Fulton Gas Works has stood empty and gutted for as long as I have been here. (16 years!?) My friend EriK Robson and I would drive by it on our tours of places that make Richmond a city and not just a town. The metal blown out gas storage tank and the cool Art deco building that stands on risers has always seemed sacred in some way. I also knew that it was doomed. There was no possible way a building and structure like this could possibly survive a development onslaught. It isn't historical, there are no famous people related to it, it was just part of the infrastrucure that is no longer needed.
Then, came the ball park.
I finished this painting in January of 2005. I worked on it through the summer. I am not crying "Save the Gasworks!" I know it needs to go sometime. I am just saying, this is a great blues song I think should be heard. I think that is why it spoke to me. It has a song, sad, beautiful, and kinda funky.

Acrylic on Canvas
40" x 50"

$2500
This painting can be seen in real life at
Main Street Centre
600 E. Main St.
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Friday, May 12, 2006

In Your Ear



This painting of Shockoe Bottom Row houses was painted entirely on site. It is behind the Adam Craig house on 22nd Street. I didn't realize this was In Your Ear studios until Robin Thompson came out to see what I was painting. Everybody who stopped by from the studio was really great. They have really done a great job revitalizing this block. I really loved how the porch roofs contrasted. The house on the end is looks like half of a "Double House." This style of house was built pre-civil war.
24" x 24"
Acrylic on Canvas
$500

Butch's Produce


This perpetually is it closed?/is it open? Richmond legend has always appealed to me. I liked the bike in front too.
24" x 32"
Acrylic on Canvas
$800

Manteo Light

SOLD Thank you LINKS patron!


This view of the lighthouse in Manteo is a little idyllic but I really saw it so, I figured I should give it a shot.
32" x 32"
Acrylic on Canvas
$ 800