INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPES Part 2…pastels

It was a simple step working with pastels on the clay print to working only with the pastels  The following paintings are not presented in any chronological order; I don’t remember enough to do that, and I’m too lazy to go through all my old inventory records.

This was one of the early paintings.  It was the first pastel I entered in the Pastel Society of America’s annual juries show where it was accepted, won and award, and was sold.  Needles to say my feet remained off the ground for the next several days after I was informed of this.

Feed Mill...pastel and ink

 Over the next three years the following pastels were all accepted in the show, but sadly there were no more awards or sales.

Gray Smokestacks...pastel...29x30

White ooal...pastel...20x30

Crooked Fence...pastel...20x30

 

Next up...Constructions.

INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPES…part 1- the beginning

I have no idea where the inspiration came from, but the very first clay mono type I created was an imagined grimy, dark industrial scene, which I still have in my possession.

the first of many...clay mono type...10x34"

 Little did I know that it would be the first of many other prints and paintings in that genre.  In this post I will show several of my early Industrial Landscapes (ID),  clay mono types enhanced with pastel.

All measure approximately 15 – 20 by 30”

I soon began working only with pastels, and eventually explored 3 dimensional constructions. I enjoy creating these landscapes, even though they are somewhat of a tough sell.  Not many folks want a grimy power plant over their mantle.  (Except a few I know who have exceptional taste in art.)

DARK, FOREBODING, AND GRIMY,

so is there any wonder why these paintings aren't flying of the walls of the gallery? For some reason I am attracted to the idea of these imaginative "industrial skylines", aka, industrial art.

It started in Mitch Lyon's (the artist who developed the process of clay printing) kitchen one afternoon in the late 90's. I was in a bit of a burn-out with my watercolors and staring at me from a wall was a thin, horizontal, abstract clay print of Mitch's. I don't know what it was about, but all I could see was some distant factories and smokestacks in the distance, and I knew immediately what I wanted to do. Shortly after that I set up my own clay slab and began exploring the world of clay printing.

This is the very first industrial skyline, and an early clay mono type.

Of course I had to do more, and I did, and actually sold several of them. I quickly discovered that I could not control the medium like I could with watercolor, and that eventually led me to begin enhancing the clay prints with pastel. One thing led to another, and it wasn't long before I was working with pastels as the primary medium, but that is for another post. Today we are still on the industrial skylines.



Next up...industrial pastels..