Corrugated 3-watercolor

"Corrugated-Sulfur"
watercolor on paper, 2012
6" x 9" (15.24cm x 22.86cm)


The challenge on this one was the street since it takes up so much of the picture plane, about as much as the sky, and has the same colors so I made sure to vary the texture.
My favorite parts are the corrugated fence caught in a half light, revealing its buckled shapes, and of course the bright yellow accent of the sulfur pile.228

Refinery at 6 x 6

"Refinery #1"   SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

Here is the third painting in the 6" Squared exhibition and sale April 16th at the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa California. Two other's here and here.

One of the many reasons I love industrial subjects is the palette of colors usually found. The blues, greens, grays, earthy and rusty browns, ochres, creams, whites and black. This struck me for the taupe of the refinery and the clean crisp white steam set against the stormy gray blue sky.

Refineries are very complicated to paint but fascinating to study. Although made from simple forms they are incredibly complex in their construction, a seemingly endless configuration of pipes, tanks, towers, catwalks, poles, lights... miles of steel, aluminum, asphalt and concrete. Formally arranged, hard edged and grid like contrasted by the softer organic forms of steam and clouds.111

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Aging Relic

"L.B. Plant ( Arco Oil Plant)"  SOLD

oil on panel, 2010

6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Back to one of my favorite subjects, the time worn industrial. This one an old oil plant from the 1930's or 40's, maybe the early 1950's I'm not sure.

The sky is actually darker than the photograph shows, and is a bit blurry here, so the painting looks better.

I always try to get the most accurate photo I can for my own archives, but sometimes I get so busy I don't have the time to spend. Always with regret once it's gone. Oh well, when I have the time I will adjust it in photoshop from memory then update it as I've done with the post 'Chilly Biting Air '.

This is the same site, different building, of the watercolor "Oil Plant Roof Detail" under the post heading ' Bleached White Sky '. An endlessly fascinating relic from a bygone era.

Painted in the fading light as the shadows slowly wick over the plant, consuming it once more in darkness. It's nearly a nocturne.

Dusk is my favorite time of day, I love the transition from day into night, so many of my paintings are at dusk. The temperature of air and color gradually cooling, forms melting together into single masses, the constant noisy clamor of day giving way to the sporadic crisper sounds of night.53

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Bleached White Sky

"Oil Plant Roof Detail"

watercolor on paper, 2010

9" x 12" (22.86cm x 30.48cm)

For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Like my previous post, this subject is utility over beauty. Or at least inherent beauty.

So in this painting my concerns were about color and design.

A limited palette of mostly blue and brown with touches of grey and black.

Backlit and a bleached white sky helped give this image the contrast needed for a more abstract composition.

The cooler, darker blue and black provide a solidity for the heavy forms, but it's the accents of burnt sienna, the warmer blue in the vertical shadows and the light blue strip across the bottom that give the image some life.41

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Utilitarian

"Refinery, Power Poles, Saw Horse"    SOLD

watercolor on paper, 2009

9" x 12" (22.86cm x 30.48cm)

This, in keeping with the last two posts, is to show some of my watercolors, another medium other than oil.

What drew me to this view was how it exemplified the utilitarian nature of the industrial subject. Nothing is there without serving or having served some purpose. Even in other images that may show the discarded, the forgotten, the untended, most everything in industry was created to execute a specific task or duty. No matter how mundane.

And while that may also be said about city, urban and nature subjects, these three more often are a blend of utility and aesthetics.

It is worth pointing out that there is plenty in industry that does have aesthetic concerns... automotive design, environmental design, architecture etc., but this painting is an example of function without aesthetics playing a direct role.

So aesthetics, if any, lies with how it is presented by the artist. A reflection of what the artist sees. Like so many still life artists that celebrate the common and the mundane, I felt this view was worthy of a look.

Not a glorious subject, not even a beautiful subject, but I am always struck by the similarities between refineries and cathedrals, their stacks and spires respectively, anchored in the heavy mass of their bases, piercing the skyline. Their ornate detail breaking up and sub-dividing their mass. That, for me, is compelling enough to show on it's own. That is what I see. Why not look at a subject out of context?

But as I said, I'm not looking to glorify the refinery here, so including the saw horse, power poles, and signs serve both as compositional devices to break up and fragment the picture plane and as reminders of their unsung status.40

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Clarity

"Rails, Bridge, Refinery"    SOLD

oil on panel, 2009

8" x 10" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

For a small painting I managed to squeeze a lot of info into it. Some call it detail, I prefer to call it clarity. It may be, but I'm not loading up the image with detail just for detail sake. It is a matter of articulating really. Clarity speaks differently than mere detail. Clarity is an Ansel Adams print, detail is, for me at least, description without much to say.

In this image all the crispness, clarity (or if you must... detail) is jammed into the upper left corner, the foreground is left, in relative terms, with much less. The edge treatment in the foreground slightly softer too.

The bridge is on a downward slope to meet the visible tracks around the corner, which break sharply to the right. All the 'first reading' lines converge and compress in the upper left corner taking your eye's first to the densely packed refinery then around the corner to the unseen merging of tracks which is supported by the 'secondary reading' lines of elongated shadows angling towards this merge.

The slightly tilted horizon also contributes to the rush toward the upper left corner as well as giving the image an edge of tension. 22

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Beautiful?

"Refinery at Dusk"

oil on panel, 2008

6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Another industrial subject I like... refineries... very complicated to paint, but fascinating to study. Although made from simple forms they are incredibly complex in their construction, a seemingly endless configuration of pipes, tanks, towers, catwalks, poles, lights... miles of steel, aluminum, asphalt and concrete.

So... are they beautiful? Is the beauty in the subject or the way an artist handles the subject?

I think it's both. Beauty is a lot of things that go far beyond the usual... nature subjects... which I also love... but how boring if we all did the same thing all the time. It really all depends on how wide your definition of beauty is.The subject is not always inherently beautiful itself, sometimes it is the way it's handled by the painter, photographer, draughtsman, cinematographer, printmaker etc. That could mean the way it's lit, colored, cropped, composed, the idea it is representing... the list goes on and on. The next time you pass one try looking at it from a new point of view.19

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