“Down in the Valley”
Pastel and pencils
April 2020
And, yes, when all goes well, and I don’t try, in a painting, to make something what it’s not?…..all goes well and quickly. I just finished this landscape, having started it three hours ago. It is, above all, quite beautiful here in Nellysford……a small valley enclosed by a ring of mountains.Not much that could count as a more than a community (about eight buildings, and no crossroad or stoplight?)….and certainly nothing amounting to even a small town. Any problems I have are as nothing compared to those of other folks during these times….particularly when I can walk or drive out in my ratty old honda-civic (sp?) with the dogs to see this sort of reassuring sight. I’d had two conversations with friends who, I realized, were genuinely scared, at home with children, etcetera…..and I do wish I could bring such folks here and put them up in the ten or so empty rooms at this old, suddenly-deserted inn. It is, first and foremost, peaceful here in this small valley.