Saturday, April 21, 2007

Tearing It Down



This is part of the glass Bottling plant they have in El Monte. I first painted it last year when they were still in operation, finishing their last Coke in glass bottle order. I believe the rumor is that Coke is going all plastic. The security guy told me that the operation itself was losing money do to the high cost of running antique equipment. I imagined this will be a blow to the locals. A lot of jobs lost in this closing. To bad as I think we are on the cusp of figuring out how bad drinking water from plastic is along with the better taste glass gives beverages.
This a view I could see from the street before as the building in front of it was torn down. I considered my painting unfinished, but sort of like the abstracted quality that gives the painting. Honesty, I also needed to feed the blog and It's hard to find the time to paint.






When there today---this is the same view-- BOOM!

41 Comments:

Blogger BoneDaddy said...

I love this one. You're playing a yin yang thing with the warm and cold colors, and it jumps from warm to cold so well you don't really notice the change, just the dismal twilight feeling the painting leaves you with. That warm highlight in the middle jumps right out at me.
I also agree, the glass bottles were always superior. I guess not enough people recycle these days.

4:39 PM  
Blogger BoneDaddy said...

sorry, not the highlight in the middle, it's just off to the left a bit on the taller building.

4:40 PM  
Blogger Tom Kidd said...

You could certainly do a series on modern ruins. Things now become obsolete much more quickly than they once did. I guess Coke needs to make room for their "vitamin" drinks -- the new snake oil.

I've got a fancy title for you: "Bottling Plant in the Gloaming." This is twilight isn't it?

I like the diffused city lights in the sky off in the distance. They nicely frame this somber structure.

9:08 PM  
Blogger Chris Ousley said...

Excellent work. Another mood setter. Cold drinks always taste better from glass. It's a proven fact. ;-)
They had better not put beer in plastic bottles.

9:23 PM  
Blogger BoneDaddy said...

Sorry dude, they've already started putting beer in plastic. It's part of their "portable case-cooler" thing.

7:53 AM  
Blogger Mike Manley said...

Well I guess it's literally "into the Sun Set" with this one. Good color balance and a nice scrumbly application of the paint. Keep finding the time to paint!

8:38 AM  
Blogger william wray said...

thanks BG,

I think it's just slightly more profitable. If Coke save 2 cents a bottle it mean millions. Also if they still do a token glass bottle China is cheaper. I don't matter anyway all the bee's are dieing so we don't have much time left anyway.

1:12 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Hey tom--Thats not city lights...;-) The place was huge.

6:53 PM  
Blogger BoneDaddy said...

Wow, I just saw the photo. It's a bit sobering seeing the mmory you preserved and the reality of the present.

11:37 PM  
Blogger Michael Pieczonka said...

Great painting Bill. Daring and dynamic colour scheme. BTW... what's up with those bees dying! I'm very worried now too!

11:55 PM  
Blogger Sharon said...

I was amazed yesterday to see how much demolition took place since our last bike ride to the bottling plant.

10:05 AM  
Blogger Cara said...

Beautiful painting finished or not. I lived in El Monte for a short time in the late sixties (as a child) and am always delighted when someone mentions it.

By the way, my sister and her husband are cavers and do an annual "bat count" in Carlsbad Cavers, NM for the park service to document the dwindling bat population as it relates to polution...

10:15 AM  
Blogger william wray said...

C. -- .I bet they sell a lot more beer in cans than glass.

8:07 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

thanks Mike M-- I'm trying-- I also need to find time to just pain draw. I'm getting rusty.

8:09 PM  
Blogger Tom Kidd said...

Thanks for the after shot. For a year now I'd been planning to paint an old tree I liked in the local cemetery. I kept putting it off and now they've cut it down. Oh well!

8:41 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Michael,

It seems as if the Bee's are stressed by a series of things form climate change / pesticides/ to the shear amount of electromagnetic pulses in the air from cell phones that messes with their radar. The main culprit of a foreign parasite that that “Jumped the pond” buy riding in on world trade routes and is aggressively sucking the life out of them.

11:46 AM  
Blogger william wray said...

Sharon -- Yeah, kind of ruined my mood. You know it's coming, but it's amazing how fast it goes when they want it too. Looks like all the Manufacturing is going around there.

11:49 AM  
Blogger William K. Moore said...

Boom .. let's hear it for progress.. yeah.. good thing you captured the magic before it disappeared. Presto change-O!

3:41 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Cara-- Bat counters eh? They better shift to something that will live thru the hell to come... How about Jellyfish wranglers? If they were frog counters here they would be out of work as of a few years ago...

8:28 PM  
Blogger slimjohnson said...

WW --- gotta say that I have always shunned the city and thought I had to paint in the country --- but I am inspired to see you finding the beauty in the unexpected. Thanks --- Slim

8:57 PM  
Blogger Ryan Kramer said...

Wow, it's been a while since i've been to your blog...but now i know why visits are less frequent...I get too jealous!

9:41 PM  
Blogger Shawn Dickinson said...

It's great that you can record these things with your amazing talent before these structures are ruined.

Security everywhere must be getting to know your face pretty well by now.


Nice colors, by the way!

11:56 PM  
Blogger Leslie Sealey said...

I like your painting just the way it is; it looks finished to me. You did a great job with the warm/cool interplay of colors, as usual. ;- )

5:34 AM  
Blogger rob ijbema said...

nice one Bill!
love the unfinished feel and highlight on the tower,a great game between understatement and focus.
haven't seen glass coke bottles for over 20 years,here in Europe...

12:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love how the yellow underpainting peeks through. It makes it feel like there's sparks in the air. Excellent. You mingled warm and cool so beautifully. BTW, I just published my blog, web.mac.com/studio_280. Do visit please. There's a lot of glitches to work through yet. I don't know why, but the comment buttons don't show up when it's on line. That kills me cause I want feed back!

3:52 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Yes Tom, Progress!

6:05 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Wk Time is a killer. Oh my back---

6:05 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Slim--there is art everywhere, you just gotta paint it.

6:06 PM  
Blogger alberto mielgo said...

Very nice option to paint.
The light in the metal makes clear the time of the day

6:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the spectrum of colors you found in this site. Sorry it had to go, but sometimes I guess they just can find a good housekeeping help.

11:05 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Ryan-- that's youth-- I used to want to kill myself when I went to museums at your age. How could I ever get as good a the best artists at the Met--? Finally I realized I didn't have to get that good, just honestly trying to was enough.

7:54 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Shawn-- So far I haven't repeated the same security person as far as I know anyway...

10:55 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Thanks Leslie-- It may just stay this way...

10:56 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Rob I don't drink coke so I really can't be sure, but this may be the end of them.

11:02 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Silviana,

You have had some good teachers--say hi to Vadim for me.

12:17 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

thanks Alberto-- Your works keeps knocking me out.

2:12 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

thanks Robin-- Rough times in El Monte.

2:47 PM  
Blogger Whit said...

They're theorizing, though not yet broadly, that anything drunk from plastic bottles (such as water) can, over the long haul, cause prostate cancer. This is due to chemicals from the plastic leeching into the liquid over time. Add this reason to the many others why Coke going all plastic is not a good thing. But first, decades of legal denials from the people who sell liquids in plastic containers!

3:05 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Thomas,

Apparently it’s the worst when you're a baby and Mom heated your plastic bottles. It’s the heated plastic that really leaches out.

3:11 PM  
Blogger Jared Shear said...

Beautiful image.....so much energy. Also I really like those unpainted areas up in the top right corner, they add something, even if it was probably not intentional.

9:10 AM  
Blogger william wray said...

Jared -- yes I like those ruff spots too... Often the part where the underpainting can stand up on it's own are really satisfying spots as they have a "pure art " feel.

11:36 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home