FORGOTTEN ILLINOIS Exhibition at North Shore Art League, Winnetka Illinois July 18 - August 9, 2019

Illinois Central Mogul Locomotive at the Illinois Railway Museum, 14 x 10 inch watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

This watercolor I painted on-site at the Illinois Railway Museum will be in the exhibition FORGOTTEN ILLINOIS in the second floor gallery of the North Shore Art League at 620 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois.  Everyone is invited to an opening reception on Thursday, July 18, 2019 from 6:30 to 9:00pm.  The show will run through August 9.

CHICAGO: INsideOUT Exhibition at Bridgeport Art Center Sept. 21-October 19, 2018

Chicago Streetcar Barn at Illinois Railway Museum, 13 x 10 inch watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

This little painted on-site watercolor is one of three paintings I have in the CHICAGO: INsideOUT exhibition at the Bridgeport Art Center at 1200 W. 35th Street in Chicago.  There is a large free parking lot on the north side of the building.  Enter the building on the side facing Racine Avenue and take the elevator to the third floor gallery.   The exhibition will be up from September 21 through October 19, 2018.  Work by 75 artists will be shown.

Collectors' Preview:Friday, September 21 from 5:00 to 7:00pm
Opening Reception: Friday, September 21 from 7:00 to 10:00pm
Closing Reception: Friday, October 19 from 7:00 to 10:00pm

6 Railway Paintings in my New "Traveler's Sketchbook" Exhibition in Evanston

There are six railroad images included in my exhibition TRAVELER'S SKETCHBOOK: Paintings and Graphics by George C. Clark now open at the Three Crowns Park Gallery in Evanston, Illinois.   Five were done at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, and one at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, Nevada.  Everyone is invited to an artist's reception on Thursday afternoon, November 2, from 2 to 4pm.     

Santa Fe No. 543 at the Illinois Railway Museum

Santa Fe No. 543 at IRM, 9 x 10 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

I painted this locomotive on static display outdoors at the Illinois Railway Museum.  Some rail fans like to see equipment portrayed all new and shiny-looking like it just rolled out of the factory.  For them I suggest that in an archive someplace there is a photograph of this locomotive taken the day it first rolled out of the factory.  If that's what they want, they should acquire a print of it and hang it on their wall.   As for myself, I'm an artist-- I paint what I see for the most part.  I like to paint old trains.  I find them all interesting: meticulously restored, not so restored, or rusting and abandoned out in the weather.  If I see rust, I paint rust.  If I see broken windows patched with plywood, that's what I paint.

I'll  confess there are a few artistic liberties I might take to improve a painting.   At IRM they use day-glow orange flexible plastic fencing to keep kids from climbing on the trains.  It doesn't bother me that they do that, but I never include that stuff in my art.  Nor do I depict the big white signage that identifies and describes the history of the various locomotives and rolling stock on display.  I usually paint locomotives in the setting where I found them, as is the case with No. 543.   Sometimes, however, if I feel an engine will look better silhouetted against foliage and sky rather than the big dark locomotive that was really behind it, I will make that change.  Trains are movable, after all, and can and do move around the Railway Museum's compound.  And more than once I have painted the old sand tower into a painting to add visual interest although it really wasn't visible from where the rest of the painting was made. 

A Rainy Afternoon at the Railway Museum

Pennsylvania GG1 No. 4927, 7 x 5 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

Bells, Whistles & Lights, 7 x 5 inch ink drawing by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

One overcast fall afternoon my wife dropped me off at the railroad museum in Union where I was planning to shoot some photographs while she went to shop at a farmstand near a neighboring town.  However, no sooner had she driven away when it started to drizzle, then to rain.  I took shelter in one of the locomotive barns where I found a bench just inside the big open doors.  There were a couple of locomotives parked just a few feet in front of me on parallel tracks that were pretty well illuminated by the light coming in the open doors.  I got out a little sketchbook and made these drawings while I waited for Pat to return.

The Nevada Northern Railroad, Ely, Nevada

Nevada Northern Railroad, Ely, NV, 10 x 9 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

After the opening reception and business meeting at the current American Society of Railway Artists Exhibition in Las Vegas recently (see previous posts), most of the attending ASRA members drove up to Ely, a town four and a half hours north of Vegas, to visit the Nevada Northern Railroad Museum.  Back in the early 20th century a copper company built a railroad to haul ore and smelted copper from a big mine up in the mountains to connect to the main line of the Southern Pacific.  After seventy years the mine closed and in 1984 the copper company donated the railroad to the town of Ely to be a railroad museum.  Unlike most railroad museums, which are lucky to have a station, a few miles of track, a few old locomotives and some rolling stock, this museum acquired an entire working railroad, including two operating steam engines that were purchased new from the factory in 1909.  They have diesel locomotives, freight and passenger cars, stations, offices, 143 miles of track, and all the maintenance facilities you need to keep a railroad functioning.  I drove up on a Saturday and spent two nights there to give me a full day Sunday to explore before I headed back to Vegas.  There is a great steakhouse located in what used to be the town jail where the food and drinks are excellent and priced at a fraction of what they would cost in Las Vegas, and it was great hanging out with other railroad artists.  

Scrap Yard at the Illinois Railway Museum

Railroad Scrap Yard, 10 x 6.5 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

I found this old cut-off locomotive cab rusting in a scrapyard behind a maintenance building at the Illinois Railway Museum.  I drew this view of it silhouetted against a white parked truck trailer.