Down on Beaverbrook: Artistry and inspiration…

Beaverbrook is a real joy to have in my life. Born from a friendship that has flourished across the Atlantic for a number of years, Chris and I often share ideas and reflections on both the art of modelling and the inspiration that can come from a single photograph…

What follows is a bit of a dialogue I wanted to share, because Chris articulates what I’m trying to achieve AND how the process makes me feel so much more eloquently than I could alone. It all started a year or so ago with a short stretch of Code 55 rail and my yearning to ape some of his success with beautiful  track work and road bed on his Coy project. The memory of that experiment and the methods I practiced saw use on Bear Creek last Christmas and finally I am ready to try them on the roadside trackwork of Beaverbrook itself. The key ingredient here is patience, but the physical is non-sanded tile grout. I’m using a brown shade that seems to work beautifully in my palette, working it into Woodland Scenics ballast and then securing with scenic cement… repeating this and experimenting with how to shape and stipple the grout is producing some wonderful effects, I’m just taking my time and seeing how it evolves. Over to Chris…

Sometimes layouts are focal points for places or times we want to be a part of, again or for the first time, and sometimes they’re a work surface to experiment in processes or media we want to be more experienced in. I love how you explore so many different perspectives within Beaverbrook and how it feels like what I’m trying to describe. Like my return, again and again, to a few “same” places in Dartmouth or Coy because there’s this fascination that seems to collect, like an energy, right there. In this way Beaverbrook is a place not an agent, model, or connection to a place. Your Beaverbrook is a place.

I can hear 1751. That slow approach to the crossing and the pause. It’s as much about safety and protection as a kind of acknowledgment of being a polite guest in a shared space…

I feel I need to study your photos a bit more to get a feel for how to transition the road into the ballasted area, but also remembering that this is a model and needs an element of my interpretation in its finish.

This is the most important thing and, for me, what makes the work in our hobby interesting. Popularly “we” think it’s all about a constant dedication to precision and accurately miniaturization of a place as it was in a time. A kind of imprisonment of a place and time in a zoo of special moments we store in our basements. 

I love when we work in a margin between what we saw and how we want to express our reaction to it. That feels like a more whole interpretation of inspiration.

I think Chris has really nailed it. That ‘margin’ is very much the exciting space I love to explore and discuss, share and promote through this blog. The layout is a learning experience, a joy, a calming presence and has created an intense sense of pride in what is slowly emerging from the plywood and old cardboard cereal box mock ups. Inspirational?

I guess I leave that for you to decide, but it generates a good deal of positive energy in my own modelling that filters through into he rest of my life. What a wonderful hobby, and what great friendships we have formed on the journey. Until next time more soon…

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