Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Buffalo's Old First Ward & Grain Elevators

shadows of ELevator Alley pastel Kath Schifano Kathy PaintingLast May, Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters came to this site-grain elevators in south Buffalo, the Old First Ward. It was windy, cold, & unworldly for a May day. We returned to paint again in September-what a difference! Warm, no wind, relaxed. There is very little growing to change the view here, so the compositions were similar but with the sun a bit lower in the sky. Layers of unused industrial buildings create strong geometrics, while the sun quickly changes the shapes of shadows.

 It's called 'elevator alley', & the Buffalo tugboats are moored to the left of this scene. I have painted them with pastel as well. To the right is the river leading to the Ohio Street bridge and another massive collection of grain elevators-a subject for another day. Sharon Fundalinski & Peggy Walker have painted this scene many times with & without me & scheduled this paintout for us.
Shadows of Elevator Alley 9.5x12.5 pastel 2009

2 comments:

  1. there's a new book about the history of Buffalo's elevator: "American Colossus" (Colossal Books, 2009), written by William Brown. Check it out.

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