Lost in South Chicago

This drawing is related to the previous “Chicago” drawing that I posted previously. That drawing represented a view of Chicago in the distance seen from the interstate just North of Gary Indiana. This drawing represents a view of Chicago I saw about fifteen minutes later. Way in the distance you can see the lake and the wall of buildings flanking it going off to the North, which is downtown Chicago. To the right are those curving exits from the highway that lead to those new Southern suburbs of which there are thousands, each with there own town name. To the left and up in to the middle of the drawing you see that web of bridges, roadways and exits that you have to get through in order to get into downtown Chicago.

It was only just about three minutes after I saw this view that I became hopelessly lost in South Chicago, about dinner time. It was there, amidst an enormous congested neighborhood of small corner stores, laundromats, and store front churches that I made one of those profound realizations of my life, of the type that only occur once. I realized absolutely, that before I could ever read a road map again, I would need to buy reading glasses. Reading glasses and a flashlight.

This drawing measures 6” x 8”. It is drawn on tinted cold press watercolor paper with purple wax pencil and without any white chalk highlights. It is signed with an R on the front and full signature and date on the back, Richard Britell July 27, 2001.

Chicago, There in the Distance

A few years ago I made a trip by car through a portion of the Northeast. My purpose was to stop in several of the old industrial cities, especially the steel mill towns, and make a series of photographs for use as the basis for a series of paintings. My ultimate destination was Chicago, and that town more or less combined, but in a larger and more dramatic way, the visual interest of all the other cities.

What interested me were the views in the outskirts of the city, beyond the suburbs, with that combination of interstate highway, and crumbling industrial ruins.

This drawing is no particular view, and is not drawn from a photograph. It is a memory of a place on the interstate just North of Gary Indiana where you begin to catch glimpses of the city in the distance.

For a sense of design in this drawing I should credit Rembrandt, and the other Dutch masters who invented the composition called the Dutch Landscape, which consists of about two thirds sky and one third earth. The idea of this subject matter however, is my own.

This drawing measures 2.125” x 8.5”. It is drawn on tinted cold press watercolor paper with red wax pencil and white chalk highlights. It is signed with an R on the front and full signature and date on the back Richard Britell July 26, 2001.