Saturday, April 25, 2009

Train on an Island: Close-ups

Here are some close-ups of my new painting: Train on an Island



Close-up 1: This shows the steam engine similar to one that would be found in the 1920s when the song was first recorded. The engineer who "can't hold the wheel" can clearly be seen looking down from above at his true love who is walking on the other track. The train is going over a railroad bridge (coming) from an island. The colors are poor as this is taken in the shade.








Close-up 2: Depicts J.P. Nestor rising from the smoke and ashes to sing "Train On An Island." He's in the smoke cloud above the engineer. This shot was taken in the shade.






Close-up 3: Here's the full smoke picture












Close-Up 4: This was take in the direct sunlight so the colors are much brighter. This shows fiddler Norman Edmonds, who recorded the song in 1927 with J.P. Nestor, appearing magically from a bush on the bank of the island shore. Crazy, I know!




Close-up 5: This shows a girl walking down the track looking wistfully over her shoulder. Above her the engineer looks down. The lyrics can be seen at left- the porportion of the train is skewed becaue of the camera angle but you get the basic idea.




Close-up 6: the lyrics

Friday, April 24, 2009

Update: Train on an Island

Hi,

I've posted about 100 blogs on my new art site MattesonArt: http://www.mattesonart.com/
There's some good research on Rene Magritte, one of the artists featured on my site.

I'll be back to the Carter family someday.

The good news is I've finished my painting "Train on An Island." It features J. P. Nestor playing the banjo in the sky forming from a cloud of black smoke and Norman Edmonds, magically emerging from a bush, playing fiddle.

Nester and Edmonds made the first enigmatic recording on August 1, 1927, in Bristol, Tennessee, for the Victor company and Ralph Peer. Ironically it was the same session that the Carters and Jimmie Rodgers did their first recordings.

I'll have some pics soon.

Take care,

Richard