Guided By the Light

Yesterday photograph (C) gls

Landscape of Time photograph (C) gls

(won 2nd place at the League of Roanoke Artists Juried show 2009)

Spirit Door photograph (C) gls

The Other Side photograph (C) gls

Square Dance photograph (C) gls

Last weekend was the second annual Plein Aire Paint Out for Art for the Earth. This year all proceeds from the art show and sale (featured for the month of October at Art by Night at Gallery 108) will go to the Catawba Sustainability Center. For those of you familiar with a ride over 311 towards the Homeplace Restaurant, it is the large farm just to the right as you come down the mountain. The farm includes 370 acres of beautiful farmland, now owned by Virginia Tech. There are many ideas generating around this property, one idea will be utilizing the land by renting out small gardening spots for local folks to raise crops which in turn are harvested and given to local food banks, etc. The site will also be used educationally in may ways, from visiting local schools to Tech architecture students, to name a couple.

While we were all there to paint, we were over come with the beauty of the farmland, houses, barns and outbuildings. While it was a beautiful day, the wind was quite ferocious, making it tough to control paint, pencil, and paper. I found myself more engaged and taken by walking around the property and investigating the old structures and land. I was intrigued by the smell of the old barns which brought back some of the best memories of my childhood, the days I lived on a Fincastle farm back in the 1960's. I was mesmerized by the shadows and how they landed on the walls and floors inside the buildings. I was excited at all the patterns created by lime stains, cracked concrete, light coming through the old window panes, and the light patterns created inside the old silos. Painting will happen another day since the center is open to the public, and I fully intend to pack my paints and return.

I took two years of photography in college and loved it. I dabble here and there but never show any of it. I think, this time I may show some of my photographs. The images, to me, are hauntingly abstracted forms of farm life and nature. I hope you enjoy them...I'd love to hear what you think!