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Showing posts from December 27, 2015

Hamner Crossing: The Oil

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Sometimes as an artist one will come across a scenic place that is just calling out to be put into an oil painting. Such was this spot in Nelson County right where the railroad tracks going North and South pass through the County. It has plenty of space, and visual impact one might expect from a railroad crossing. From as far back as Edward Hopper (which isn't that far of a stretch) the railroad scenes have been a real draw for we visual artist. Rails have such great and large visual props. This crossing caught my attention with its two crossing guards and lights. It is so structured and its contrasted by the chaos of mother nature all around it. So here we have order surrounded by chaos, what a site of novelty and the promise of good subject matter for my canvases. I started by photographing the scene. I took perhaps thirty or so photos from one side of the tracks but doing it from all angles. I simply walked far down the road and then walked back towards the g

George Gross and his Political Satire

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It was in the seventies when I was ready to file as a Conscientious Objector that I found the German anti-war artist known as George Gross. He lived in Pre-World War Germany and showed the leftover horror of what World War One did to the German population and he reflected that in his pen and inks as well as his oils. I studied his work while I was a student at PAFA in Philly. His lessons were that the torn up German population was a bitter place to live with much debauchery and low living going on. He had the good sense to show it in his drawings. The one I selected is one of a German soldier being given a physical for entree into service, just like the one I had just gone through as a civilian in the current draft process in 1968. The drawing Mr Gross did kind of emphasized how the German Army was ready to take almost anyone even a skeleton who looks he needs a coffin rather than an Army uniform. But the title Mr. Gross gave it was one that stated that 'he qualified&#