A Room With a Killer View

I have a show in April and I need to produce like crazy. Last week, I traveled to a remote area on the edge of the Blue Ridge mountains to immerse myself in my work for four days. I haven't had the opportunity to do so since my Route 1 trip, having too much on my plate at any given moment. Family, a full time job, teaching (that's a new thing), and an occasional game of SimCity leave me hours here and there to paint, so here was my opportunity to, as some might say in Amherst County, git er done.

No better place to do it than Luminhaus, a modern retreat perched on the side of a wooded mountain scape. Seclusion is the theme here, with only a land line and a steep, winding gravel road connecting it to the outer worlds. A long-distance call requires a phone card, which everything is here — long distance. No cable, no internet, and most noticeably, no humans.

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I painted steadily, and thanks to Luminhaus' impressive collection of contemporary and abstract art, the views and its walls were inspiring. I'm painting for my new body of work entitled "Populace," a series of new paintings to open at Glave Kocen Gallery on April 6. A friend pointed out that I sought out complete isolation to paint images depicting urbanization.

Upon return, I was greeted with a cell signal and a speeding ticket. Damn you, civilization.

The typical shopping cart of reclusive painters.

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Two of the four pieces completed at Luminhaus. Several more are back in the studio and on the easel.

I woke up to a dusting of snow the second day.

The lineup of some paintings I started, and in a few cases, completed at Luminhaus.