Subway Girders – view through the F train window coming into the Smith 9th Street Station – watercolor on 300# Arches
Once again I started this painting with a grisaille (a gray value study). Which you can see below:
I then dragged a large soft brush with clean water down the paper from the top to the bottom to spread some of the paint around. This is slightly different than what I did in previous paintings seen here and here where I waited for the grisaille to dry and then splashed it with clean water followed by very diluted paynes gray and very diluted raw sienna. The dragging of the water gives the painting a look of grittiness since this view is through a subway window. To me it also adds a feeling of movement.
I then went back in and added local color. Some green and rust to the girders and some more paynes gray to re-establish some darks and details.
Finally I finished it with a little more detail to the paynes gray girders, local color and I added a raw sienna sky. Cause really, wouldn’t a regular old blue sky just be boring in this painting?
On another note the NYC Canstruction exhibit is going on right now in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center.
Canstruction Annual Competition
Exhibit Dates:
Begins: November 6, 2014
Ends: November 20, 2014
Exhibit Location:The Winter Garden and Lobby of 250 Vesey Street at Brookfield Place (formerly known as World Financial Center), New York, NY 10281
These are cool and fun with all the canned food going to the needy after the exhibit is over. You can also donate canned food when you visit the exhibit. How clever and creative are the people who put these together?
33 comments
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November 10, 2014 at 9:03 am
jotsfromasmallapt
I looked at your girders and then your cans. I looked at them again. And, then again. What did I do next? I crossed the road and bought a chicken.
Grandma Moses would like you…
November 10, 2014 at 9:21 am
7891samoth
This is great!
November 10, 2014 at 10:24 am
Mary
What incredible patience for a complex piece of art – wonderful painting Carol – love the colors used for the girders. Those cans are so cool!
November 10, 2014 at 11:10 am
dani8080
Girl, this painting is AMAZING!! I might have to try to make a copy of my own. See you Sunday my sweet! xo
November 10, 2014 at 11:34 am
Sys Trier-Morch
Hi Carol,
This is the painting Tim & Joan were admiring at his last workshop. You wrote a great description of his method!! Beautiful result, too. It’s funny, though, that he no longer runs the clear water over the painting before splattering it — as he taught us last year — and couldn’t even remember doing it, when I asked him why he was omitting it!!!!
Have you shown it to Kaaren? It’s so different from her style!
Sorry to miss Sunday class and seeing you.
Love, Sys
>
November 10, 2014 at 11:47 am
Susan Feniak
The girders, such a complex piece of art and so very well done. 🙂
And then, can art, who would have thought!
November 10, 2014 at 12:00 pm
Dayle Vander Sande
What a wonderful post, Carol. I loved the exhibit you showed us, and the artwork looks great at all stages. Your F Train photo reminds me of the first photographer to introduce the engineering aesthetic, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Here’s one of his photos of the Eiffel Tower, 1925: http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.144
On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 8:55 AM, Carol King: drawing, painting, complaining
November 10, 2014 at 3:18 pm
brad young's art
Very Cool!
November 10, 2014 at 5:01 pm
bilomathews2013
A very time consuming composition to paint with all the interesting triangle shapes and values of gray. You did well! It’s a great composition to study.
November 10, 2014 at 6:51 pm
Sam
Stunning cat’s cradle!
November 10, 2014 at 7:36 pm
Suzanne
Carol, let me know if you are downtown ever during the week. I am at 7WTC. Fantastic post, as always!
November 10, 2014 at 9:39 pm
jimmyboi2
I FREAKING LOVE YOUR GIRDERS!!! Oh My God!!!! I am incredibly impressed!!!! MAN!!!!! Love, Jim (working in Winter Garden, FL) xoxoxoxoxox
November 11, 2014 at 6:10 am
cathgatland
Another fantastic painting Carol – wow (again!) I agree a blue sky would have changed it completely and made it less effective/gritty. Love the tin can sculptures, what a great idea!
November 11, 2014 at 9:54 am
Barry Coombs
Love the subject and the way you’ve handled it. Informative step by step.
November 11, 2014 at 10:01 am
lindahalcombfineart
Carol, your work has grown in strength and power. This is a wonderful composition and the technique works well with this subject.
November 11, 2014 at 1:33 pm
Jana Bouc
Carol, this is stunning! I actually love all the versions of the painting, and any of them could have been a finished painting. You have a great eye for composition, something I struggle with.
I tried to comment on the last post about being in SF but something went wrong on my end. I wish you’d had more time when you were here so we could have connected for a little sketching or a chance to show you around my world as you so generously did for me when I was in your town.
November 11, 2014 at 3:54 pm
cathy
Very serious and wonderful painting. I love it. Of course one of my favorite pics is the rather rough unfinished one and the tiny bits of rusty brown. Love the finished piece too.
November 11, 2014 at 7:01 pm
padmaja
You created a mind blowing piece Carol!
November 11, 2014 at 7:08 pm
Joan T
If subway girders can be called beautiful then that is what I’ll say. This is beautiful!!!! I think these pieces of gritty NYC are what you do best! They say we should paint what we know best and as a city girl you rock these!!!!
November 11, 2014 at 7:13 pm
RHCarpenter
Ok, who told you that you could take old steel girders and make a painting of them that made me want to look and enjoy the beauty? Glad you told yourself you could because this is wonderful and I enjoyed seeing your process. The can creations are too cool!! So glad all the food goes to needy people who will definitely enjoy the gifts.
November 12, 2014 at 4:24 pm
elenacaravela
Fantastic! Love the innovative can work. And really love your painting. The sky color is a brilliant touch!
November 12, 2014 at 6:02 pm
lesliepaints
Wow!!!! So much detail in this one and I really like the abstract feel of this! You have taken the technique and made it your own in this one, for sure, Carol. I like those color choices too.
November 14, 2014 at 11:37 pm
hw (hallie) farber
A Wow from me, too–this is an amazing painting. I like the can art, too–what a great idea.
November 17, 2014 at 11:14 am
kk2n777
If I have not told you already, I LOVED this painting.
November 18, 2014 at 7:24 am
Sadami
Carol, Amazing!!! Absolutely a master piece. Congrats! Cheers, Sadami
November 18, 2014 at 3:18 pm
Irina
It gives the feeling of movement for sure. For a moment I thought: “Did she painted this on location, through the train window??”
Great. Need to sign it.
November 19, 2014 at 4:42 am
June Malone
This is such a cool, original. complicated painting – you’ve managed to show the beauty in something that most would dismiss as being unattractive and merely industrial Carol – I would be cross-eyed with a steaming brain had I tried something so exacting.
My son says it reminds him of the album cover “The Empty Hollow Unfolds” by Raison d’être http://webshop.raison-detre.info/album/the-empty-hollow-unfolds-expanded Tellingly, they describe their music as ‘dark ambient industrial drone’ perhaps you could name this your dark ambient industrial piece.
November 19, 2014 at 5:47 pm
nicsearth
I thought i commented on this but i mustn’t have. Anyway this is fantastic-really realistic. I love the stages you went through to get this-its an interesting and very effective technique.
November 25, 2014 at 10:37 am
anne farmer
Looked at your blog because you liked mine. Wow! Absolutely stunning – watercolour at its best.
December 4, 2014 at 12:24 am
mehrlich125
What amazing works of art! The realism is palpable.
December 8, 2014 at 10:55 am
napabelle
I absolutely LOVE this, and admire your patience!!
December 22, 2014 at 8:28 am
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