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.