Impressionism and model railways

I'm returning to a topic which obsessed me for months towards the early weeks of this blog - over a year ago now - namely, Impressionism.

I'm not sure that Impressionism is the right term but what I meant by it then and what I mean by it now is that I intend rendering the HO scale buildings not as highly accurate and finely detailed models but as impressions of buildings.

I prefer impressions because that is how I perceive the world: impressionistically.

So, I love this city church that I made out of cardboard last year and painted very quickly with any old leftover oil paints that I could find. It took me about 15 minutes to execute, but of course I'd been thinking about the nature of these old blackened inner city churches for very many years.

And, I prefer it to this very detailed commercially made rendition of a building in Venice.

The detail is fantastic.

Here's my church at the end of a Parisian street.

It conveys to me the essence of these inner city churches. Early morning Masses attended by a tiny number of the Faithful - mainly elderly and stooped women. Magnificent interiors in need of expensive repairs. A couple of beggars outside. A few newcomers perhaps desperate for Divine intervention in their lives.

All this going on just inches away from the busy secular society in the street outside and all one has to do is push open a wooden door to access it.

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Calvin Harris:

Went to the gym this afternoon and on my iPod quite a few Calvin Harris tracks popped up.

He really is a very clever fellow.

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Last night's dinner:

This was a massive success:

Hake, samphire, black pudding and caramelised pears.

St Paul - St Louis, Paris

One has to plan ahead if one is to make the most of these Ceramics evening classes.

In this case, I'm thinking that the clay slab I'm going to carve out to make a row of buildings for the layout may not yet be dry enough to work on by the time Tuesday comes around.

Cardboard representation of buildings.

So, I need something else up my sleeve. That's where the church of St Paul-St Louis enters the equation. I've been working on a sketched plan of it for the past couple of weeks but am dissatisfied with the proportions.

Doorway looks too narrow to me.

So, I took another approach today. I loaded the image of the church  into a fairly elementary "Paint" program I've got on the laptop.

I then highlighted what I consider to be the defining features of the church by "painting" over the picture with pale yellow and lavender lines.

Then I printed out the image onto an  A4 sheet.

Close up.

This serves two purposes.

Firstly, it familiarises me further with the nature of the building - these baroque edifices are bloody complicated and one can get bogged down in the detail.

Secondly, once I expand the image by about 10% I'll have a really good plan for cutting out the clay to the right size for an HO scale representation.

PS I've decided to take the 4 walls of the  pink Boulevard Haussmann and work on them at home. There is no more ceramic additions to be made to it.

The 4 pink walls are homeward bound.

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Last night's dinner:

I'd attended a colleague's 50th birthday lunch at work and so just had a banana for dinner last night.

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Today's lunch:

Stovies from the freezer plus a large tomato.

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Currently listening to:

Glenn Gould playing Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Gould on the right.

Gould was Canadian, died in 1982 at the age of 50 and had a reputation for brilliance and extreme eccentricity.

Every now and again Sky Arts 2 broadcast a documentary about him which is greatly esteemed but which I find dull.

Wee Lochan

Took a garden tie which is basically plastic covered wire that can be bent into any shape and thus tied and, in my case, made into a window frame.

A reminder of the apertures to be framed.

Might try pipe cleaners or insulated electrical wire as well.

Also, the "Chemical Metal" arrived which eventually I will use to stick the 4 walls together.

Held together by a nervous pair of hands.

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Last night's dinner:

Last night we dined at Wee Lochan. This local restaurant is rapidly becoming my favourite Scottish eatery.

Last night we had:

Spouse: smoked salmon

Spouse's spouse: Devilled kidneys

Spouse's spouse: Hake wrapped in pancetta

Spouse: rump steak

Everything was more than faultless; exhilarating, I would say.

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Currently listening to:

A random selection from my Hot Chip collection on iTunes.

2012

2010

2008

2006

2004

They've released an album every two years since 2004.

Tango classes resume

Too tired and busy to do anything on railway. But, have been thinking hard about how to render the window frames of my Boulevard Haussmann building.

The apertures awaiting frames.

The real thing.

In reality, the window frames are white, but I may not be bound by that if another colour looks better. Suddenly. as I was falling asleep last night, it came to me. Insulated electrical wire. Wire can be bent into the shape of a window frame and is flexible enough to make a frame for each window when they are certainly not all the same size or even square. Also, the plastic insulation comes in a variety of colours. I'll then back each wall with black glossy card. Windows do look black from the outside looking in. A lesson I learned from a visiting Art Teacher when I was in Primary school and have never forgotten. The realisation that windows were black seemed to make drawing buildings much easier than having to draw in what was going on behind them.

But then again, what about Avril Paton's famous Glasgow tenement paintings.

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Tango classes resumed:

Attended the Improvers' class last night and did not enjoy it. There were dozens of people there who had not simply progressed from last session's Beginners' and were bloody skilled practitioners - felt a complete clot (hope they didn't mind, it was an accident).

However, I then stayed on to make up the numbers in the first Beginners' class of the new session. That was a most fulfilling experience. Naturally, we went back to basics and the rudimentary exercises I had done in my first class at that level. But this time, not only was I able to keep up with the class, the point of the exercises was much more apparent to me.

So, I have decided to repeat the beginners' course and not tackle the Improvers' until next year.

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Last night's dinner:

Artichokes and boiled rice.

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Currently listening to:

Deerhoof:     Friend Opportunity

Deerhoof

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Currently re-Reading:

Evelyn Waugh's World War II trilogy: Sword of Honour.

The fact that I'm at the beginning of vol 1, Men at Arms, and have so much left to read fills me with great happiness.

Ceramics update

Fairly successful evening at the ceramics class. Successful in that I was purposefully employed for pretty well the entire time.

The pink walls of the Boulevard Haussmann building had been glazed with a satin finish and fired. I'm pleased with the effect.

The next step is to either stick it all together with 'chemical metal' which is what I know as Plastic Padding.

Or, to add the features and window frames and roof first and then assemble it.

I've ordered the Plastic Padding from the internet - feel guilty about that, I should have gone to my local hardware store and given them the business.

On reflection, it would be easier to add the features before the walls are assembled.
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Then I embarked upon my new project: rendering in ceramics the currently cardboard made blackened city building which will run along side the edge of my railway station..

I tried to roll the strip of clay with a rolling pin and then a large and stout cardboard tube; but in the end used the rolling press.

The clay has to be almost 2 cm thick if it's too stand up and not crack..

Here are some photos of the various stages of  preparing the clay. The cardboard model can be seen in some of the shots.

I'm not sure that the rest of the class is as impressed with this project as it was with my other pieces.

Too thick for the rolling pin to flatten.

The tube was no use either.

In the end, resorted to the press.

That should be big enough  to make the black building.

Cut to size.

The next step is let the clay dry somewhat so that it does not spread around any cuts or indentations I might make. So, will leave it wrapped up in the damp cupboard until next week.

Once that was all done, I spent the remainder of the evening re-drawing the plan for a Parisian church facade I want to turn into clay at some point.

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Last night's dinner:

Rather sickening in its effects, actually. It was delicious but far too much to consume before spending an evening at the ceramics class.

Smoked salmon, avocado and prawns mayonnaise

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Today's lunch:

It's usually sandwiches for lunch but today was at home, so had a leek and Gruyere tart with broccoli.

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Schubert's Symphony no. 9 in C major D.944 (Great)

It was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 iPlayer from a concert by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The orchestra is based in Katowice.

It's getting access to events like this which makes me love the institution which is Radio 3.

Ceramics class tonight

Hopefully, the PINK walls of my HO scale Boulevard Haussmann will have been glazed and fired and I can begin to think about assembling it and fitting window frames etc.


Reminder of the current position:

Held in position by hand.

Pink!

In the mean time, I've got two other ceramic projects in the pipeline.

The Parisian church of St Paul and St Louis.

Drawing it out.

But I'm going to re-visit this drawing because I think I've got the proportions wrong.

And, secondly, the ceramic realisation of this cardboard row of buildings which I painted in 2 or 3 minutes six months ago or so.

Which, in situation, looks like this:

Perhaps a ceramic realisation will not be an improvement over the cardboard version. But, there is something to be said for consistency in the medium in which each building on the layout is rendered.

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Currently listening to:

Soma Coma

Which is a compilation of electronic music emanating from Glasgow.

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Last night's dinner

Lamb chops and tomatoes, aubergines, and courgettes from the recipe book below.