Around the Table

Two steam engines wait for their duties on the tracks that radiate from a turn table.  Seeming peaceful, they are actually powerful beasts of iron, steal, fire, water and steam that will soon be moving at speeds close to '80 mph.The locomotive in the foreground represents another NYC Hudson.

Pennsylvania Dawn

This painting is the start of a new direction for my body of work.  I took some time off, not only from blogging, but from painting as well, and when I came back I had a whole slew of fresh ideas. The subject matter is still basically the same, but the approach couldn't be more different.  As a result, I am enjoying the painting process more than I ever have. The idea is to portray the steam locomotive more like it really was, and to also capture the feeling of the world in which they operated.  In order to do this I had to think about atmosphere and lighting, but also overall mood.  In a way, I became more realistic with the painting, but I discovered a way to approach light, shadow and color in a way that opened my eyes to future possibilities.

The new approach allows me to blend realism and abstraction, but keep the image intact.  It may be hard to believe, given the subdude nature of this painting, but over all, when I did this painting it was the most fun I'd had in years.  Make your own call, of course, but I for one am happy about my fresh discovery.

The modern era was really kicked off with, first, the photograph, and then, the "moving pictures". Early film makers often used trains, as they showed movement like nothing else and could help captivate audiences. In 1903, Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery was considered a milestone in film technique. Buster Keaton's 1927 film, The General, was a great moving picture that used a steam locomotive more as a member of the cast than as a prop. Some of the greatest shots of steam locomotives in history are from Keaton's film, including a spectacular wreck, (using a real locomotive).

It is in these above mentioned ways that the early movies and the steam locomotive are directly linked together, and both symbols of true modernism. This painting is slightly older than some of the others, (produced in 2006), but it deals with the same ideas of movement and modernism.