Chapter 16
Machinery, function and modernism
The functional character of trains, machinery and ships
makes a pleasant contrast to the historicism or concern
for applied style in buildings, especially very recent ones.
Machinery makes no concession to surface aesthetics,
and derives its visual qualities instead from meeting strict
utilitarian criteria: rivets are left exposed and moving parts
are placed on the outside for ease of access and
servicing. The result of this unassuming functionalism is
often to produce objects of rare beauty or structures of
haunting presence. To draw them is to understand their
essence as working objects and to appreciate their form.
When placed against everyday buildings and landscapes,
the industrial object has both an immediacy and charm
that can be attractive to draw.
Sketching machinery is not easy, yet the functionalism
of the subject often gives the picture great power. The
‘functional aesthetic’ is normally expressed at both a
detailed level (in the bolts, welds and pressed metal
panels) and in the general massing or arrangement of the
subject. You have only to look at such essentials as the
steps up to the cabs of diesel engines or the door handles
of tractors to realise that a rugged utilitarianism reigns. If
beauty is to be found in the machine-made detail, the
same is true of these objects as seen in their entirety.
Their silhouettes are often evocative, and the exposed
frames of such structures as pit heads and gantry cranes
make them striking features in any landscape.
Industrial landscapes are often linear affairs. The
parallel lines of railway tracks or dock basins allow the
artist to exploit the directness of single-point perspective.
The balance between horizontal and vertical lines is also
important. Since trees are often lacking from such places
or appear only as a self-seeded scrub, the lines of the
industrial features are not generally softened by
landscape. Hence the artist can approach the subject
using 6B pencils and plenty of dark wash or crayon. The
spirit of such places lends them to bold representation.
It is often a good idea to exploit silhouette, especially
in structures that are quite high. Industrial buildings and
working machinery are not normally painted – their colour
derives from oily splashes, rusting steelwork and the
hues of manufacture. In a landscape of flour mills and
cement works much will look frosted by the white dust,
and mining areas will be darkened by the colour of coal
and iron ore. Such places tend to be dark and rather
dramatic, with ‘spillage’ providing a counterbalance to
sculptural shape. The best industrial scenes are almost
sublime (to paraphrase the eighteenth-century Romantic
Edmund Burke) in their honest juxtaposition of structure,
dilapidation and enormous scale.132 Understanding architecture through drawing