Erasure

"Catalina Pacific Concrete (Demolition 1)"
watercolor on paper, 2014
9" x 12" (22.86cm x 30.48cm)
For sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Here is another from the series.
The old Catalina Pacific Concrete Plant, which I recently found out was built in 1939 if my source is correct, moves one step closer to being erased from the landscape, becoming transparent as its corrugated skin is slowly removed.

It will be odd when it is gone, since it is the only tall structure where it stands and can be seen for blocks in all directions. The skyline will have a noticeable void in it.

Although it has sat untouched for a while it won't be long now. It is going to become a parking lot for the current business that operates there now.

I painted this view with the skyline in mind, showing how the building is (has been) seen against it by leaving it nearly white, a blankness interrupted by the block of a building.
This version has more warms and cools interspersed throughout over previous ones (below), giving it some life just as it is being razed.267

See other versions of it here, here, here, here.

No House of Cards

"Catalina Pacific Concrete (Storm)"
watercolor on paper, 2012
8" x 11" (20.32cm x 27.94cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Here again is the old shut down concrete plant, with its gangly proportions, facing an incoming storm.
I sometimes find that a subject can have different faces, a persona about them that can shift as I see it from different views and/or in various lighting or weather conditions.
I then have to decide how to present that perception through design of composition, value and other art elements.

As I said in my post of this similar view, the building seems precarious when seen from its narrow side.
The difference here is I've bracketed it between the railroad signal and power pole which support it and hold it upright, the verticals providing a stability to the shaky structure. And shown it in a 3/4 view so the side adds some solidity, giving it more of a sound brick feel. Shifting the perception from a house of cards to one that can withstand anything.179

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Last Kiss

"Sunkist Packing Plant (w/ Contrail)"
oil on panel, 2010
8" x 6" (20.32cm x 15.25cm)


A section of the Sunkist Packing Plant in Orange County California, recently shut down and I feared was slated for demolition. Fortunately it looks like it will survive, a local college has begun taking over the site.

It served the citrus industry since 1945, collecting fruit from local farms, processing and packing it for shipment onto trucks. Here, the west side of the plant along the Amtrak rails receives the last kiss of sunlight, the wind raking away at the contrail.107

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Ghostly Structure

"Oil Plant Backside (w/ Storage Tanks)"   SOLD

oil on panel, 2010

5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

Featured in Crussell Fine Art 2011 International Survey Periodical

Here again the oil plant, (previous images under post headings 'Aging Relic' and 'Bleached White Sky' ).

A fabulous view from the back with it's white storage tanks being gradually overrun by rust, taking on a patina of colors ranging from burnt sienna to deep copper to a rich chocolate, the whitewashed wood cladding showing itself in grays, blues and greens. A palette I love.

Seen in the late afternoon, the sun reveals the ghostly structure, the top wisped in shadow. It's age apparent by the holes, missing and leaning sections, rust, stained wood and foreground growth. All contrasted against the newer power pole, it's wires, bypassing the older oil plant.

Painted with precision while allowing hints of a 'shaky hand' here and there to remind of it's delicate state. Presented from a distance but tightly cropped. A subject still robust but unsentimental. It's purpose having been served.63

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Aging Relic

"L.B. Plant ( Arco Oil Plant)"  SOLD

oil on panel, 2010

6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Back to one of my favorite subjects, the time worn industrial. This one an old oil plant from the 1930's or 40's, maybe the early 1950's I'm not sure.

The sky is actually darker than the photograph shows, and is a bit blurry here, so the painting looks better.

I always try to get the most accurate photo I can for my own archives, but sometimes I get so busy I don't have the time to spend. Always with regret once it's gone. Oh well, when I have the time I will adjust it in photoshop from memory then update it as I've done with the post 'Chilly Biting Air '.

This is the same site, different building, of the watercolor "Oil Plant Roof Detail" under the post heading ' Bleached White Sky '. An endlessly fascinating relic from a bygone era.

Painted in the fading light as the shadows slowly wick over the plant, consuming it once more in darkness. It's nearly a nocturne.

Dusk is my favorite time of day, I love the transition from day into night, so many of my paintings are at dusk. The temperature of air and color gradually cooling, forms melting together into single masses, the constant noisy clamor of day giving way to the sporadic crisper sounds of night.53

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Bleached White Sky

"Oil Plant Roof Detail"

watercolor on paper, 2010

9" x 12" (22.86cm x 30.48cm)

For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Like my previous post, this subject is utility over beauty. Or at least inherent beauty.

So in this painting my concerns were about color and design.

A limited palette of mostly blue and brown with touches of grey and black.

Backlit and a bleached white sky helped give this image the contrast needed for a more abstract composition.

The cooler, darker blue and black provide a solidity for the heavy forms, but it's the accents of burnt sienna, the warmer blue in the vertical shadows and the light blue strip across the bottom that give the image some life.41

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Concrete Facades

*Update- below is the painting framed. Here it was done by an interior designer who has an exceptional eye for framing art. She understands how important it is that the frame should compliment and not overwhelm the art, as is often the case. The designer very carefully selected the frame and matte's based on the art first, instead of the frame itself or where it will hang.  

"Water and Power"

oil on panel, 2008

6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

private collection

"Rio Tinto Minerals" SOLD

oil on panel, 2008

5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

They could just as easily be the stone walls of some canyon. This is how we see differently sometimes, by disassociating ourselves from the actual object and seeing from a compositional point of view for instance. The power poles in "Water and Power" could be tree's, the street, a small lake... the point is, seeing is not always visceral, or at least ONLY visceral, sometimes it's intellectual.

In both of these views I was initially drawn to the concrete facades, stretched out horizontally across the landscape. Then how the vertical elements, the poles, windows, and architectural details, counteracted the horizontal format, shifting the emphasis, giving the composition a more vertical stress. The tree's and steam softening the hard lines. You can find the same thing in nature.20,21

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Corrugated

"Shed Stack"

oil on panel, 2008

5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

"Champion"    SOLD

oil on panel, 2008

5" x 7' (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

I'm not exactly sure why, but I've always loved corrugated buildings, so here's two. "Champion" is now gone, an empty lot now and "Shed Stack" is still there, although I have no idea what kind of business runs out of it. There is a tall smoke stack, the base of which is barely visible at the top left, but I don't recall ever seeing any smoke coming out of it. I have different views of these two groupings of buildings done in watercolor which I plan to post sometime soon.14,15

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The Dying Day

"Catalina Pacific Concrete"

oil on panel,2008

8" x 10" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Here's an industrial subject. An old dilapidated concrete plant long shut down with it's roof gone. Although not visible in this view, there are train tracks leading into the small shed attached in the foreground where the train cars could be loaded. Set against the dying day following a storm, the plant's productive day's too, long since passed.3

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