Artwork

This is another post I wrote while I was bored on an airplane.  I referenced it in a previous post and started out as a serious post, however those that know me know that while I am serious about the hobby I do not take the hobby seriously (We play with toy trains for crying out loud) and since the majority of this was written at the end of march I toyed with it being an April fools joke.  Years ago Tony Koester wrote a trains of thought column about how he was dismantling his HO Nickel Plate Railroad and switching scales to G scale. personally I found the article brilliant and thought a post about me getting out of the hobby and becoming a railroad art aficionado would be a good tongue in cheek post for April 1st and I was going to lead with the Photo below. 

Truly one of my favorite paintings, I picked it up on a trip to Disneyland the Christmas before my daughter was born.  After our last move it sat hidden away and she had not ever seen it, during this time it managed to come out of its frame and so when I took it get reframed she saw it and loved it too.  Needless to say it is now on loan to her.

Well April 1st came and went and so now instead of trying to make a humorous post I am back at trying to be serious as I got tired of looking at a half finished post on my drafts list. So here it is.


Previously I discussed the number of books that have been purchased in pursuit of model railroading. These books offer a huge amount of information and inspiration that can be used towards building our layouts. This is not to say that books are the only non-model or tool purchases we should make. Of course photographs and slides are also valuable,  but what other sources of inspiration can we find out there? What about wall art? By wall art I mean items that are meant to be hung on the wall and took some effort to produce. A railroad lantern or other artifacts could be hung on the wall but I feel these are classified more as décor, than art.

I break wall art down into two categories first one is paintings and drawings and the second is other art.  Lets start with the other category which by its very nature is a catch all category.  In my "I love Me room" (I do not yet have a dedicated hobby space but I do have a room that is mine to eventually do hobby work in that also will double as an office and the room I keep all my work gear in,  currently it doubles as Storage room B) I have several examples of the other category. The first is metal work, on one of our trips around Arizona, I think it was in Tombstone, my wife managed to find a metalwork representation of a steam locomotive. She procured it and gave it to me for our anniversary (hey she tolerates the hobby even if she thinks it can be silly).

The second thing under this category is cloth work. Once again my wife managed to stumble across something during our travels and bought it for me, I believe they are swatches of fabric with a railroad theme that have been framed in a rustic wood frame, the scenes represent Colorado narrow guage and are enjoyably to view. Now someone might ask if this is really art? Well someone had to create the original artwork.

The final items in the other category is my collection of Yuma produce lables. Once again someone created the original artwork. Agriculture is King in Yuma and these labels harken back to its Zenith, a bygone era of steam and early diesel locomotives and iced PFE refrigerator cars. I currently have labels that are mostly from vegetable crates, mostly lettuce which is fitting since Yuma is the winter lettuce capital of the United States, but I hope to soon acquire some labels from citris and melon crates. Some of the shippers included in my collection will even be represented on the layout. Also when I get a layout space I plan to move these into the train room to help set the mood and give the layout a sense of place.

My produce crate label collection.  Many agricultural areas had similar collections for whatever product they shipped out, I have even seen can labels for canned fish from the canneries in Washington State. My dad collects Wenatchee Valley apple and pear crate labels, if I was modeling Tehachapi it would be apples as well.

While I do not currently have any drawings railroad themed paintings are another story.  There are several different types of paintings out there such as oil, acrylic and water color to name a few. There are also many different levels of painting from the low end print to the high end original. In the middle there is the giclee and these are truly stunning at less cost than an original.  In my personal opinion, if you are framing these with a frame that has glass and not lighting them a print is good enough as many of the effects are minimized when behind glass.  For example I have seen giclees and originals that were individually lit and it looked like all the lights in the scenes were on.  This is an amazing effect for headlights and block signals, however as stated before it is lost if the work is behind glass and not lit, so i that situation the lower cost print will do nicely.  After all we are trying to save more money for models right?

There are many terrific railroad related artists out there, each with a different style and subject matter they specialize in. Everyone knows the name Howard Fogg and I do have one example of his work despite it being of a UP subject. The painting is called "King of the Hill" and features a Big Boy locomotive. I picked this one up when UP 844 came through town, so I can make an exception for subject matter.

I have two paintings of Amtrak as well the first is by Thorpe and features the Empire Builder crossing Sheep Creek Trestle in Glacier National Park. My dad models the Great Northern and before he settled on Stevens Pass he considered modeling Montana so we spent several family vacations in this area and it has a soft spot in my heart. The second is a Larry Fisher work also featuring the Empire Builder, entitled "The Rainbow". This painting depicts the Builder exiting the west portal of the Cascade Tunnel in Washington State (a location that I grew up railfanning) during the early days of Amtrak. For those who dont know this time frame was known as the rainbow era as most of the equipment was still in the liveries of the original owners making for some interesting combinations in consists.  Also if you look closely the car that is just exiting the tunnel and only partially visable is a Southern Pacific car.

My final two paintings are by John Winfield, I especially love his work as he specializes in railroads of the South and Southwest. I picked up these prints at the SPH&TS convention last year in Palm Springs and my only regret is I did not buy some others he had as well. The first painting is one I have coveted for years. I saw it in a catalogue but did not buy it and had been searching for it ever since, it features the westbound (northbound) Morning Daylight  lead by 4449 along the bluff at Gaviota, California. This is an iconic Southern Pacific scene and it shows the SP at its finest.  The other Winfield painting features the Eagle Mountain Railroad bringing a loaded ore train down to Ferrum to interchange the SP. Not only is this a gorgeous painting but it show cases an interchange I plan on modeling.

There are several more Winfields I hope to acquire over the next few years but I only have so much wall space in my 10x10 room (its really more like 8x10 as the closet sticks at least 2 feet into the room but the builder got away with some creative measurements to be able to claim the room was10x10). He does have one featuring U25's on Beaumont Hill, which hopefully I can acquire if he attends the SPH&TS convention in Santa Rosa this year. 

From left to right: Larry Fisher "The Rainbow", Top Center: John Winfield "Daylight #99 at Gaviota", Bottom Center: John Winfield "Kaiser Steel's Eagle Mountain Railroad", Right: Howard Fogg "King of the Hill", Far Right: J. Craig Thorpe "Glacier Morning"

So if you are looking for inspiration perhaps finding an artist whose paintings catch your fancy is just the ticket. Who knows what it will inspire you to create. Until next time remember its all about the journey and most importantly have fun.