Model railways as art

[Gwiwer]

Enter the words "Define art" into Google and the first result is this:

 

 

• The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture;
   
  
• Works produced by such skill and imagination.
  

I know a number of modellers also to be working artists in the commercial or professional sense and have a number of non-modelling friends who are also working artists. It still came as something of a surprise to have my work described by one of those as "art" when taking in the view of what is, at a basic level, the rearrangement of ready-made pieces of track, pieces of scenic foam and resin and the application of paint to woodwork.

 

The conversation turned to describing the layout as being every bit a work of art as are his own paintings as it is a physical manifestation and an interpretation in various media of a place I shall always consider home. I hadn't thought of it that way before but was happy to agree!

 

Moving on from that rather surprising compliment I then though about how our modelling work might be used "outside the square" as it were in ways many of us may not have considered. Aside from painting my own backscenes I also enjoy photography as a hobby and have started to experiment with what might, in another topic, be considered "creative" photography of the modelling work.

 

I don't propose to swamp this topic with my own images of which there are plenty on show elsewhere but will open discussion to the floor for those genuinely interested in looking at things from a different perspective as to what may or may not "work" and perhaps some of the techniques used and feedback given by others.

 

First a tiny sample of the actual painting. With something like 30 metres (yes you did read that correctly) of painted back scene, albeit mostly sky, there has been ample opportunity to include little cameo views such as this teaser of a rather angry sea boiling into a rocky shoreline under a stormy sky. The lighting is natural and is enhanced by having the greenery in bright sunlight. I hadn't used a paintbrush in 40 years other than to redecorate houses from time to time so have no "style" nor skill in this area. The work is acrylic (some diluted, some not) using techniques which include a "spotting" of colour in a manner similar to many Aboriginal paintings.

 

 

Playing with the camera a little I have also experimented with speed blur though without the benefit of shutter priority on this somewhat basic model. However with the layout lights on a freight rolls through the station leaving light trails and a "see-through" effect to the far platform.

 

 

Finally a view which has attracted comment in another forum and something I personally have seldom seen done; headlight trails in the dead of night as a class 66 comes around the curve at one end of the layout.

 

 

OK - the floor is open. Add your own, comment on others and let's see where this road might lead.

[scots region]

I would argue that model railways can be scene as "a moving picture of reality" after all few other forms of modelling require the environment around said model to be so interactive.

[Jol Wilkinson]

• The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture;
   
  
• Works produced by such skill and imagination.
  

 

From these definitions, then a model railway can be described as art. But what kind of art, and what skills?

 

For example, two entries are received for the local art club exhibition. One is a number of food labels stuck on a peice of card, mounted in an off the shelf clip frame and entitled "My diet". The other is a oil painting on canvas of a local scene by an amateur painter. One has possibly used more imagination than skill, while the other uses more skill than imagination. Are they both art? If so should we regard one more worthy of consideration than the other because the artist has used more skill or more imagination.

 

Is building a layout to ones own design using readily available models more or less "artistic" than a model of a real location, where every thing has to be made to suit?

 

For me the skills carry more importance because I believe that the model of the real thing is what "modelling" is about, rather than using imagination to create a collage of readily available items.

 

I suppose it's Constable/Turner compared to Emin/Hirst.

[kev]

Not just art,woodwork,electrical,steel work,maintenance,may well be others and do not forget to run your trains

kev

[The Q]

I regularly have to attend art gathering, with SWMBO, as they know what she paints they often ask me if paint as well. My reply is I paint in 3D and animate it as well. Eventually I tell them it's scale model railways Which tend to then make them think about it instead of dismissing it as playing with trains..

The Q

[APOLLO]

Railway modelling is an art, a skill, a craft, a trade, a hobby, a pastime, a way of life, a devotion, as mentioned above it is also a meld of many skills, woodworking, metalworking, electrical, mechanical, etc etc etc.

 

I'm currently building a gas works. My aim is to make it as uninviting, gloomy, filthy and atmospheric as possible. Just like the real thing, though (unfortunately) mine won't have the associated smells !.

 

Brit 15

[Gwiwer]

Thinking along industrial lines we have in the "classic" art repertoire the likes of LS Lowry famed for works depicting industrial gloom and despondency and JMW Turner whose work included early examples of railway art. My own favourite work (not just of railway art but of all the classic genres) is his "Rain Steam and Speed".

[Mikkel]

That's one of my favourite paintings too :-)

 

In a similar vein, I really like Monet's paintings of railway stations in Paris:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQuvmTISQRo

 

 

Without knowing much about art, it seems to me that the different approaches to railway modelling are fairly similar to the different schools in art. Although it's probably best not to get too categorical about things.

[Mike Friedman]

Model railways are undoubtedly art, as well as much more as others mentioned.

 

If they are good or bad art is another question, or can of worms......

 

Below are three pictures of my painted backdrop, another 20 ft. to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below are four “artyfarty” pictures of the layout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike Friedman]

I'll try with the rest of the pictures this time.

 

The backdrop pics

 

 

 

 

And the rest of the artyfarty pics:

 

 

 

 

Mike

[BlackRat]

Always thought of it as art, placing myself in the Don Breckon school!

 

Mind you....................

 

Others of course go for the photo realism school and I have seen a few Modernists now and then as well!

 

Wonder if anyone has done a Damien Hurst and pickled a loco?

 

Art, definately!

[Worsdell forever]

I try to go for artistic cameos rather than the usual clichéd ones...

[Pacific231G]

There was an effort to claim railway modelling as the "10th Art" about eight years ago by Jacques le Plat and others in France and Belgium. His "manifesto" in French is on http://users.skynet....l/frca10ea0.htm and in a not great English translation on http://users.skynet....l/ukca10ea0.htm

He credits modellers in Britain and America, starting with John Ahern, with turning model railways from a "scientific toy" into an art form.

.

The traditonal six arts as listed by the philosopher Hegel in his "Lectures on Aesthetics (1818-1829) were 1. Architecture 2 Sculpture 3 Painting 4 Music 5 Dance 6 Poetry (which usually now includes literature)

Film was claimed as the seventh art in 1911, media arts (broadcasting, television and photography) have been claimed as the 8th though photography alone has also claimed to be the 8th art. Cartoons claim to be the 9th art.

 

There is competition to be considered the tenth art with modelling vying with digital arts, video games, culinary arts and others and other arts such as drama get shoehorned into one or other of the others.

 

These classifications (or at least the first seven) of the arts are well known in countries like France and Spain but seem less so in the English speaking world. You may of course think that trying to classify all arts in this way is pretentious and over intellectual.

[Gwiwer]

I can see modelling railways would fit with architecture, sculpture, painting and music (DCC sound and the usual "music to the ears" of wheels on jointed track!) while capturing it on film placs it into the media category as well. i've even heard one or two models described as "Poetry in motion".

 

We love to categorise and classify. It helps us to make soem sense of things. I have no difficulty in considering our modelling as an art form since it already fits with many of the more established arts and allows us - as creators - to be considered artists in our chosen medium.

[Chris Nevard]

Might this appeal to the unconverted? It's tricky to know because we like the subject all too much I fear?

 

[Gwiwer]

I'd call that an artistic image Chris. It's well-modelled of course but it's also creatively composed and a long way from the snapshot photography sometimes seen.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I'd say what Jon (Sandhills) creates is certainly art.

[Pacific231G]

I went to the large biennial show organised by AMFC in Orleans for the first time the weekend before last (13ème salon du train miniature d'ORLEANS if you want to Google it- there's a lot of photos on the French forums) and later saw the local TV news report on it (unfortunately no longer available on line) Their reporter was definitely taking it seriously as an artistic or at the very least a craft event- none of the tongue in cheek toy trains stuff you sometimes get here. Mind you they did focus quite a lot on Pempoul and even interviewed Maggie Gravett in French so they could hardly have seen it as anything but art.

One thing that did strike me was that, apart from the large club layouts, most were displayed in light boxes and most were operated from the front. There seemed much more emphasis on showing visitors your modelling and discussing it with them than on putting on a show of trains for the public. Though a few layouts were being operated fairly intensively, most exhibitors would tend to stop and talk if someone wanted to discuss their layout. In that sense it was more like the specialist shows here than those aimed at the wider public even though it was as crowded as Warley with just as many rucksacks.

[trisonic]

My view (from 40 years in the Music Business) is this: Never describe your own work as art, You will come over as a pretentious twot...

 

Best, Pete.

[jcm@gwr]

 

Wonder if anyone has done a Damien Hurst and pickled a loco?

 

Art, definately!

I know a few who have pickled their chips!

[scouser]

Surely the work of people like Gordon and Maggie Gravit (hope I spelt that right) and Chris Nevard, to name just two, is art. I might not no much about art but I certainly know I like trains!

[IanBertram]

I found this thread by googling for 'model railways as art', because the topic interested me, as a lapsed modeller and now an artist. I wrote a blog post on it after reading about an american artist called Alan Wolfson who built dioramas in the style of John Allen, P D Hancock and especially George Sellios'  'Franklin and South Manchester'. This history was not recognised in anything written about Wolfson's work though.

 

http://www.ian-bertram.co.uk/blog/entry/model-railways-as-art.html

[ForestPines]

In the arts, there has always been a bit of a divide between art and craft - for example, the V&A was essentially opened for the latter.  I suspect that people would argue that model railways are not art under those grounds.  In more recent times though the divide has become blurred; but still there are arguments that the work of, for example the potter, Grayson Perry, is not art because it is craft.

 

On the other hand, I have seen a couple of works of art which incorporated model railways.  One was in an exhibition of modern German artists at the Saatchi Gallery: it featured a G scale double helix suspended rather insecurely, with a loco going around it and constantly looking about to fall off as the track moved underneath it.  The second was by a young Welsh artist whose name I've forgotten, and had rather more information on what it was about.  It consisted of a snooker table with balls and cues, OO gauge track with a DMU running back and forth automatically and occasionally tapping a snooker ball and moving it.  The display stated it was about the artist's teenage years, when his model railway club shared rooms with a snooker club, and the snooker players would take the piss out of the modellers: this artwork was his revenge.

[ForestPines]

Ooh, I've just coincidentally happened across a newspaper article about one of the artists I mentioned above. His name, which I'd forgotten, is Bedwyr Williams, and the sculpture I was talking about is called The Tyranny Of The Meek. Full article here: http://gu.com/p/3f574

[nhdesigns]

Personally I've always seen railway modelling as some form of art myself. I used a lot of my railway modelling as part of my artwork whilst I was Uni. In regards to art I see as depiction of life and what one sees the world as. Particularly when modelling the current day railways which in a way is like a artists palette of colors moving at speed.