I just returned from a short visit to Staunton, VA, where I stayed with friends and re-visited a downtown frame shop and gallery. I brought with me a series of Shenandoah Valley landscape scenes, some of which you have seen on this Weblog. The owners loved them and the pictures will be marketed at the gallery. I am interested to see whether I can sell art in a smallish town in Virginia. Local promoters are trying to turn Staunton into a historically preserved tourist town with antique and craft shops, as well as cafe's and restaurants and cultural events. It won't be like Asheville as it is too socially conservative to allow stoned hippies to wander the streets. At least I hope so.

Staunton is full of nineteenth-century architecture, some of it renovated and lovingly preserved. Other examples are in need of much repair and care. I toured the town with my friend as he pointed out various excellent buildings full of Victorian design and woodwork. Perhaps investors or homebuyers will buy these residences and restore them to their nineteenth-century glory. Meanwhile, I was able to do my first outdoor on-site drawing of the year, illustrating one of these vintage houses. Later on I photographed a lot of cows, so that I will have good references for more pastoral landscapes.

Posted at 1:26 am | link