Deceptive memories of sooty buildings?
Imagine an Urban Landscape.
Do you think of Clean?
Probably not. Cities are much cleaner than they used to be but cities and grim go together like pencil and lead. Like many other cities, the clean air act transformed Manchester.
As a child I remember lots of very dirty cotton mills, and I mean dirty with black soot. Features hard to determine. Wherever you looked the urban landscape was grim. In fact, I grew up thinking most old buildings in Manchester were made of black stone.
That was until they started cleaning them up. After a while I forgot and think my memory was wrong. I began to question whether things were really that dirty. Then I found this post in the Manchester Evening News which confirms Manchester was a very dirty places.
So, when I saw Quarry Bank mill my first thought was
“It’s far too clean!”
OK, it is in a rural area but there should be some soot somewhere. So I thought I’d dirty it up a bit.
Now, that looks better!
Although looking at the photos from the Manchester Evening News, I don’t think it is dirty enough!
If you fancy seeing some more urban grim take a look at my Industrial Paintings Portfolio.
I especailly like the roof colouration.
Thanks Sue!
I love your art. The use of colours, flow, abstract and structure and the unexpected elements speak to me. I could lose myself exploring this picture both in the visual and how I could take an adventure with my pen.
Sharing with my writing group.
Thank you Jacqui! Would you mind if I use your eloquent comment? I’d love to hear your adventure story, if you write it. Cathy
Lovely rusty colours on your painting. Very atmospheric and capturing the grime of an industrial site. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for commenting Debs. So glad you appreciate my work as much as I enjoy creating it. Your recent post looks intriguing, will have to check it out later, when I’ve finished here. Cathy