Thursday, December 3, 2015

Industrial Patterns 15


I just can't get enough of these structures. Built purely for practical industrial uses, they are fabulous sculptural complexities which also are lit up at night. The refineries and mills are gleaming day and night and that intensifies the nest of shadows that surrounds them. I also love the catwalks and access walks whose railings provide an iron tracery to the bigger shapes in the background. Note the fanlike structure of metal beams radiating out from the center (although the fan-like shape is an illusion of perspective.) The architects of the "industrial modernist" buildings of the 1970s such as Paris' "Centre Pompidou" knew what they were doing but I would have dropped the colorful accents and kept it an aggressive factory grey. Maybe I would have added a "steam fountain" at the top illuminated in orange light, but that's just me. They don't build'em like they used to. This one is not a cultural center, but an oil refinery. Because you, the audience, are so culturally refined.

Industrial brown ink on sketchbook page, 3 1/2" x 3", December 2-3, 2015.

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