Engine Shed

Engine Shed,  8 x 11 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

At the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, they keep engines and rolling stock that have been restored or are candidates for restoration in very large metal sheds to protect them from the weather.  Visitors can see them from walkways between the rails.  The sheds are lit by skylights and electric lights, but they are still pretty dark.  As a railfan I enjoy seeing these indoor collections and am glad they are being preserved, but as an artist I usually find the indoor displays a little too dark and claustrophobic to paint.  However, one day I found this Tuskegee Railroad locomotive silhouetted against the open shed doors because the locomotive normally parked behind it was out giving rides.  I made an ink drawing in my sketchbook and took some photos too.  Later I printed the drawing on archival watercolor paper and added the color.    

The Old Sand Tower at the Illinois Railway Museum

Old Sand Tower at the Illinois Railway Museum, 8 x 18 inch ink and watercolor painting by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

I went out to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union the last day of the season it was open this year and inked this painting on site.  I added the color later at home referring to my on-site photos.  I had brought a skinny piece of watercolor board thinking it would be perfect for a long horizontal subject like a train, but when I saw the old rusting sand tower silhouetted against the bright fall sky I decided to go vertical instead.  

A Productive Day at the Illinois Railway Museum

Chicago Streetcar Barn, Illinois Railway Museum, 14 x 10 inch watercolor by George C. Clark  AVAILABLE

In 2010, after I had been invited to create a poster and railroad prints for the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, I was also invited to come out on a busy weekend in September to paint on site and be an event for museum visitors.  Because the trains are moved around from time to time, I went out there on a sunny day a week ahead with my camera to pick some good painting locations, both indoors and out, September weather being what it is.  The day I came to paint turned out to be really overcast and threatening to rain, so I set up in the corner of the car barn where old Chicago street cars are displayed.  That's a "Green Hornet" streamlined car from the 1940s in the foreground, a 1970s "Skokie Swift" train behind it, and an old car from the 1920s or earlier in the distance.  The overcast light was actually better for painting than it been the week before, when bright sunlight had been coming in the open doors to the left.  I finished the painting on site, then took a break for a late lunch.

Burlington Northern No. 3007, 14 x 12 inch ink and watercolor by George C. Clark  AVAILABLE

After lunch, although it was still overcast it hadn't actually rained, so I decided to work outdoors.  I liked the front of this locomotive, but it had looked better as a painting subject in sunlight.  I set up in front of it with a folding card table and a stool and spent about an hour and a half doing a fairly tight ink drawing on watercolor board.  The rain held off until the drawing was almost finished and I had to pack up and leave.  At home I used the photographs I had taken in sunlight as a guide when I added my watercolors.

New Limited Edition Giclee Print Available

Rust, signed and numbered giclee print by George C. Clark from an original painting that is now in the permanent collection of the Illinois State Museums.    AVAILABLE

This new archival print will be on view this weekend at a 2-day exhibition and sale at ARTS ON ELSTON Gallery, 3446 N. Albany (at the intersection of Elston Avenue) in Chicago.  Gallery hours are Friday, Dec. 6 from 6 to 10pm and Saturday, Dec. 7 from 2 to 6pm.

The image is centered on a 12 x 16 inch sheet of 100% rag Hahnemühle paper with about an inch of white margin all around.  Each print from this edition of 30 is signed and numbered by the artist in pencil on the light green area at the bottom of the image so it can be displayed as is in a 12 x 16 inch frame or matted for display in a larger frame without covering the signature and edition number.  Unframed prints are $75 and prints framed 12 x 16 are $120.  Rust was painted on-site at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. 

A New Arrival at the Illinois Railway Museum

A New Arrival at the Railway Museum, 14 x 10 inch watercolor by George C. Clark   AVAILABLE

One day a few years ago I went out to the Illinois Railway Museum with my watercolors and found this old interurban car on two bright yellow flatcars parked in front of the East Union Station.  The body of the car was mounted on one flatcar and its heavy wheel trucks on another.  I sat down on one of the benches outside the station and made this painting.

My Illinois Railway Museum Poster

16 x 12 inch poster illustrated with the watercolor painting Saddle-tank Switch Engine by George C. Clark

In 2010 I had an exhibition of my landscape, figure and railroad paintings at the John H. Vanderpoel Art Museum.  I made hundreds of 5 x 7 inch announcement cards and 20 16 x 12 inch posters to publicize that exhibition, all featuring my watercolor Saddle-tank Switch Engine, which I had painted on-site at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois.  I sent a poster to the Railway Museum and asked them to post it where the museum's volunteer workers could see it.  A week later I got a phone call from the manager of the IRM museum store asking me to make a poster for them to sell with the same image on it.  I self-published the poster above and it is available for $10 at the museum store when it is open daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day plus weekends in May and September.    

An Old Florida Keys Railroad Bridge

The Old Bridge,  Bahia Honda Key, 6.5 x 8 inch ink an d colored pencil by George C. Clark    AVAILABLE

In the early 20th century a railroad was built from the Florida mainland to Key West by linking the chain of islands with causeways and long bridges.  When the railroad was badly damaged by a hurricane in 1935 the state of Florida bought the right of way and turned it into a two-lane highway.  Truss bridges like this one built to carry a single railroad track were too narrow to accommodate two lanes of pavement on the trackbed, so a new roadbed was laid across the tops of the steel trusses.  In the 1970s a new highway bridge (visible behind the palm tree at the right) was constructed and this old bridge was abandoned.  A section of the bridge was removed to prevent access from Bahia Honda State Park, where I made this drawing, to the part of the old bridge that is unsafe because it is no longer maintained.  This is a page from a sketchbook I took to South Florida a few months ago.