Wednesday, September 07, 2005

"On Track" again

At the risk of being redundant, I want to share this painting again. I've posted it before, so some of you have seen it, but I didn't really say much about it in the previous post.

The image is taken from a photo I took of a railroad car wheel. I cropped the original image to this composition which shows a strong sideways "S" pattern. The shadows are as they were that early spring day.

This is close to photorealism as I really want to get, but I do like the image alot. I'm planning to continue with a series of "railroad" paintings, being careful to find smaller pieces of the trains, such as this wheel, to render rather than the "whole thing."

This piece was juried by Robert Andrews of Seattle, WA. He said, "this watercolor looks like watercolor, but it also looks like heavy metal. Look at it carefully and you can feel the heaviness, the weight of the train, from above the image." After telling him I've been painting for about 5 years, he acted surprised and said, "I've know people who painted for 30 years that couldn't paint this picture." I was quite inspired after his review and our conversation.

9 comments:

  1. Hi Jim,
    I thought I might have commented on this before, but if I didn't, I sure should have. The blending of tones is just beautifully done. It's amazing what you did with such a limited palette. Do you find that you can freehand your geometric forms? I can't. I know some artists do a lifesize drawing and then transfer to their paper. What's your prefered working method?

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  2. You can be redundant all you like Jim, this is wonderful. I thought it was a photo when I first looked at it. I hope I can paint as well after only 5 years. I have about 4 years and 10 months to go.

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  3. Jim, this is truly beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

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  4. Jim, that man might have thought it looked watercolor and heavy metal but it only looks like heavy metal to me. What a great job!

    Teri

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  5. Wow Jim! This is one fantastic painting. Before I read your post, I thought it was a photograph. Wow.

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  6. Thanks everyone for your comments. I thought Frank might like this since it's similar to some of his work. I plan on doing more of these. I think it would be fun to have 3-4 to have as a series.

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  7. Jim, I've said it before and I'll say it again ... this is one of my favorite paintings! I just love it!

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  8. This a really nice piece! I've always wanted to do a series similar, but with water meters. I love painting industrial metal in water color. Truly an inspirational work of art

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