A discussion on railway art.

[Giz Puk]

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and for me I think that you have to go a long way to match the images so accurately captured by David Sheppard.

For those that have seen the DVD of 'Southern Steam Remembered' a selection of his work is viewed highlighting his ability to accurately capture the reflection of the subject in the pools of water and detrius associated with engine sheds and also his ability to project a 3D image.

This man like many others, has what I believe to be real talent, unlike me who would come last in a painting competition for 5 year olds..... mind you my potato stamping with poster paints is to die for..... no it really is to 'die for' it is that bad.

Although I could not afford one of David Sheppards' prints, I did recently purchase the iconic image from 'The Great Gathering' as a limited edition print by a local artist here in Somerset by the name of Alan Ward. For those interested in viewing his work he has a studio in Burnham on Sea and a web site www.alanwardcollection.co.uk although I must stress that I am in no way promoting his business other than to recommend others viewing his work, particularly if they have an interest in the local area around the SDJR.

Would it be wrong to say I also like some of the jigsaw puzzle views of trains...... or is that a no-no?

Yours Aye,

Giz

[bluebottle]

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and for me I think that you have to go a long way to match the images so accurately captured by David Sheppard.

.....

 

I take it you mean David Shepherd, Giz.

 

Unless, that is, the former England cricket captain, Anglican Bishop of first Woolwich then Liverpool, and Labour life peer David Sheppard (died 5 March 2005) managed to find time in his busy life to dash off a few paintings?

[Giz Puk]

Yep, thats the one, love his paintings but hate his sermons, political debates and he's rubbish at football hence he's always the last kid to be picked and permanently in goal.

He is better at spelling than me though.... must be that public school education where they done get tought proper!!!!!!!

Yours Aye,

giz

[Bernard Lamb]

Another from The East London Group.

Railway Sidings by Walter Steggles c 1929.

This is currently on show at The Nunnery Gallery, Bow.

It would almost fit as an entry for the cake box competition.

Bernard

[Giz Puk]

Now thats what i call a narrow gauge.

Yours Aye,

Giz

[Anglian]

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and for me I think that you have to go a long way to match the images so accurately captured by David Sheppard.

For those that have seen the DVD of 'Southern Steam Remembered' a selection of his work is viewed highlighting his ability to accurately capture the reflection of the subject in the pools of water and detrius associated with engine sheds and also his ability to project a 3D image.

This man like many others, has what I believe to be real talent, unlike me who would come last in a painting competition for 5 year olds..... mind you my potato stamping with poster paints is to die for..... no it really is to 'die for' it is that bad.

 

 

 

 

I met him and am familiar with both his railway paintings and wildlife images – I just find them incredibly cheesy, probably because they are pretty slick, which may be a very controversial view here. Cuneo painted a recognisable railway but at least there was a painterly drama to his work. Admittedly Sheppard could paint in such away that the images looked almost photographic but I don't understand what that style of painting has to offer beyond an immediate response of 'wow it's looks just like a photograph'. After that reaction there is nothing there for me – a technical tour de force that leaves me cold and thinking that I'd have rather seen a photograph of the scene. To me the raison d'être of paintings and painting is to explore the medium and do something that a photograph can't, as Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed and the Van Gogh image in this thread clearly demonstrate. Both show a technical ability that surpasses Sheppard's realism precisely because they can make a canvas resonate in a magical ways. I've stood in front of Rain. Steam and Speed for several hours of my life and am never board by it. It's an insight to a truly ethereal world. Imagine being Turner and seeing images like his canvases in his mind – it would be like being on a never ending hallucinogen. As an analogy it's a bit like the fact that there are loads of technically amazing piano players but very few have the real gift – to create original work and move an audience with their vision.

Edited November 8, 2017 by Anglian

[Shovelto]

I met him and am familiar with both his railway paintings and wildlife images – I just find them incredibly cheesy, probably because they are pretty slick, which may be a very controversial view here. Cuneo painted a recognisable railway but at least there was a painterly drama to his work. Admittedly Sheppard could paint in such away that the images looked almost photographic but I don't understand what that style of painting has to offer beyond an immediate response of 'wow it's looks just like a photograph'. After that reaction there is nothing there for me – a technical tour de force that leaves me cold and thinking that I'd have rather seen a photograph of the scene. To me the raison d'être of paintings and painting is to explore the medium and do something that a photograph can't, as Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed and the Van Gogh image in this thread clearly demonstrate. Both show a technical ability that surpasses Sheppard's realism precisely because they can make a canvas resonate in a magical ways. I've stood in front of Rain. Steam and Speed for several hours of my life and am never board by it. It's an insight to a truly ethereal world. Imagine being Turner and seeing images like his canvases in his mind – it would be like being on a never ending hallucinogen. As an analogy it's a bit like the fact that there are loads of technically amazing piano players but very few have the real gift – to create original work and move an audience with their vision.

That’s the joy of art, so many different but equally valid views. I really like his railway based sketches which are not photograpic in any way, imhave a number of his signed prints but have never been able to afford an original! Sadly i feel that prints, however good, never capture the feel fo an original such as “Oil, Muck and Sunlight”

[Rob Pulham]

 Sadly i feel that prints, however good, never capture the feel fo an original such as “Oil, Muck and Sunlight”

 

I would agree with you when looking at the old lithograph type prints but I am very fortunate to be in a position to compare modern Giclee prints with the originals and they stand up very well indeed, especially when printed on good quality paper or canvas.

[Giz Puk]

Whether you love modern art, classical art, the stuff Salvador did whilst tripping over his bowl of 'Cream of Magic Mushroom' soup, or Picasso did whilst obviously experimenting with an early form of 'Crystal meth' the one thing that still gets me is how can anyone produce something be it drawn, painted, sculpted, composed or written that's takes our breath away when we find it not just the first time ... but time and time again.

Whether it is on the finest canvas or the poorest quality medium, a signed limited edition original, print or photocopy, valuable or worthless doesn't matter to me, all that matters is that

I LIKE IT!!!!!!!

Everyones' tastes are different and that's what makes it special.

 

In all true honesty.... isn't everyones' favourite piece the one that their child proudly brings home and says.... 'I did this for you'..... those are the ones of true value!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yours aye,

giz

[bluebottle]

.....

In all true honesty.... isn't everyones' favourite piece the one that their child proudly brings home and says.... 'I did this for you'..... those are the ones of true value!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yours aye,

giz

 

I was visiting my sister some years ago when BiL came in, having collected their then six-year-old daughter from school.

"Show Uncle Gordon your painting", he said.

She took the artwork out of her satchel.

"But that's not your picture", said BiL.

"No, it's Stephanie's."

"Why have you got her painting?"

"Well, hers is better than mine."

She might not have known much about art, but she knew what she liked...

[Rob Pulham]

Hello all, 

 

Those of you who have expressed an interest in Chris's paintings over the last few years will get the opportunity to see them all together at a single exhibition.  

 

After quite a long wait  (we started talking to them in mid May)  we finally got confirmation from the NRM that they would host an exhibition of Chris work next summer at Locomotion in Shildon. 

 

The plan is for the exhibition to open on the 17th of August and run through to the 30th of September.

[Rob Pulham]

I am delighted to share with you Chris's latest creation. Hot off the easel
'Portrait of a Crocodile' It's taken from a series of photos that Chris and I have taken of the NER ES1 loco in residence at the NRM Locomotion in Shildon.

 

[Killian keane]

Heres a few pre grouping gems by C Hamilton Ellis, I'm particularly fond of the broad gauge rover class

Note though that 'Nocturne at Crewe' is not one of his

Edited February 12, 2018 by Killian keane

[BobM]

Hi...Thought I'd share this with you, at least you can have a laugh...thought I'd have a go a drawing one of my favourite paintings.....a pretty rubbish picture and attempt...a work in progress....

Regards always...

Bob

Edited February 13, 2018 by BobM

[Mad McCann]

There’s nothing rubbish about that, Bob.

I used to draw a lot myself as a teenager. I guess it was a way of recreating in some form the locos I couldn’t afford to buy in model form. I always enjoyed drawing but when I reached my late teens, other distractions took over.

Four years ago, I picked up a pencil again and created this sketch of an old Jumbo bowling along on a hazy spring afternoon in Galloway.

I’ve never done another since; maybe I should.

 

 

Davy.

[Marly51]

I enjoy art which evokes childhood memories of travelling by train in the 1950s, even if they were created during an earlier era...

 

 

‘The Train’ by Claughton Pellew

 

 

‘Train Landscape’ by Eric Ravilious

 

Both images from www.bookroomartpress.co.uk

Edited March 12, 2018 by Marly51

[runs as required]

I was given a brilliant book for my birthday by my sister-in-law called Ravillous & Co The Pattern of Friendship (Thames & Hudson). They seem to be a tight knit group who came together under the teaching of Paul Nash at the Royal College of Art in the 1920s and who peaked in the late 30s and 1940s especially in culturally Reithian places like the Radio Times and London Transport and its advertising.

 

But by the mid 1950s, American macho Abstract Expressionism was eclipsing them in the Corporate art buying world

 

What looks to be significant about the group is the high proportion of women artists - for example (thinking of that Ravillous GWR compartment above) Enid Marx who designed seat mocquette patterns for London Transport. 

 

It is proving a most enjoyable 'dip in and out' book to fish in.

dh

Edited March 12, 2018 by runs as required

[shortliner]

I have probably mentioned him before, but if you fancy some American Locos and stock, do a google images search for Samuel Michlap - one of his decorates my desktop currently, and has done or a year

[Marly51]

I was given a brilliant book for my birthday by my sister-in-law called Ravillous & Co The Pattern of Friendship (Thames & Hudson). They seem to be a tight knit group who came together under the teaching of Paul Nash at the Royal College of Art in the 1920s and who peaked in the late 30s and 1940s especially in culturally Reithian places like the Radio Times and London Transport and its advertising.

 

But by the mid 1950s, American macho Abstract Expressionism was eclipsing them in the Corporate art buying world

 

What looks to be significant about the group is the high proportion of women artists - for example (thinking of that Ravillous GWR compartment above) Enid Marx who designed seat mocquette patterns for London Transport. 

 

It is proving a most enjoyable 'dip in and out' book to fish in.

dh

Yes, this is a book I would like to have in my collection! Painter & designer, Peggy Angus, was a close friend of Ravilious and artist, Tirzah Gardwood, who became Ravilious’s wife also produced the image ‘The Train Journey’

 

 

Image from James Russell Blogspot

http://jamesrussellontheweb.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/eric-ravilious-tirzah-garwood-one.html

[Marly51]

Paintings of gritty railway landscapes...

 

‘The Railway Bridge’ by Donald McIntyre from Portland Gallery

 

http://www.portlandgallery.com/artists/39439/27767/donald-mcintyre/the-railway-bridge?r=artists/39439/donald-mcintyre

 

[runs as required]

Paintings of gritty railway landscapes...

 

‘The Railway Bridge’ by Donald McIntyre from Portland Gallery

 

http://www.portlandgallery.com/artists/39439/27767/donald-mcintyre/the-railway-bridge?r=artists/39439/donald-mcintyre

 

A4E90AC8-9FDC-49C4-9829-AF2720ED2605.jpeg

 

Could you guess (or did you already know) when ‘The Railway Bridge’ was painted?

I could find little out from the gallery about the artist other than the painting had been sold.  I'd guess it maybe dates from the 1950s and is oil on canvas on board and executed with a knife.

It interests me in the way that it is 'abstracting' from the scene and reducing the view with blocks of pigment to an elemental composition - yet it doesn't lose aspects of the scene that will convey many of those details (and feelings to us).

 

I suppose an 'artful' piece of work.

 

dh

[Marly51]

Hello DH - I am more familiar with Donald’s more colourful Scottish landscapes. I agree that this piece has a 1950s feel to it.

 

Donald McIntyre (1923 - 2009)

 

Here is a biography I found online.

“Donald McIntyre spent his childhood in northwest Scotland. His early experiences of the Scottish landscape and the artists he encountered there seem to have influenced him throughout his life. McIntyre always returned to coastal scenes of the British Isles, particularly in Scotland and Wales, and he developed a palette and painterly approach based on the tradition of the Scottish Colourists and their followers, Cadell and Redpath among them.

 

Although McIntyre, a gifted natural draftsman, had painted from his youth he trained as a dentist. Yet while studying at the Glasgow Dental Hospital, he attended the evening classes at the nearby Glasgow School of Art. He later served in the army and became an Education Health Officer. At 40, McIntyre decided to pursue painting as a full time career.

 

Donald McIntyre had by then moved to North Wales but, as the Scottish Colourists did before him, spent most summers painting on Iona. He often made landscape studies in situ, finishing larger works back in his studio. Yet even the studio works maintained the essence of these sketches painted en plein air which gave his painting much of its character: lively, spontaneous but well considered, and created with an enthusiastic mastery of paint.”

[Marly51]

Paintings of railway workers? There are numerous early black and white photographs depicting railway workers - signalmen, linesmen, drivers and station staff, but I have found relatively few paintings created during the era of steam and postwar period.

 

I like the 'Railway Men' (1955) by Maurice Alfred Kelly which I found on this website

 

https://artuk.org/discover/artists/kelly-maurice-alfred-19202015#

 

Edited March 19, 2018 by Marly51

[shortliner]

Could you guess (or did you already know) when ‘The Railway Bridge’ was painted?

I could find little out from the gallery about the artist other than the painting had been sold.  I'd guess it maybe dates from the 1950s and is oil on canvas on board and executed with a knife.

It interests me in the way that it is 'abstracting' from the scene and reducing the view with blocks of pigment to an elemental composition - yet it doesn't lose aspects of the scene that will convey many of those details (and feelings to us).

 

I suppose an 'artful' piece of work.

 

dh

This may be of interest

 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/davidthackray01/donald-mcintyre/

[Andy Kirkham]

Paintings of railway workers? There are numerous early black and white photographs depicting railway workers - signalmen, linesmen, drivers and station staff, but I have found relatively few paintings created during the era of steam and postwar period.

 

I like the 'Railway Men' (1955) by Maurice Alfred Kelly which I found on this website

 

https://artuk.org/discover/artists/kelly-maurice-alfred-19202015#

 

image.jpeg

 

Very nice. Reminds me a bit of Paul Delvaux, except that the figures are male and have their clothes on.