Another Book Suggestion

In the Traces: Railroad Paintings of Ted Rose.

     Ted Rose was the kind of guy who did a little bit of everything. He is best known for his watercolor paintings of trains -- five of which ended up on 33-cent stamps -- but he also served in Vietnam, worked for the city of Santa Fe, Kalmbach Publishing, and for the Chicago & North Western and later the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroads. His intimate knowledge of railroading is at once apparent in his watercolors, which I think are the best railroad artworks ever published.

     Rose paints realistic depictions of trains and the people that run them but without the exactitude of detail that makes so many other railroad paintings look unrealistic. Rose seems to capture trains as they are rather than how and he is one of the few railroad artists I have seen that manage this. It may seem like heresy to suggest less detail is more, but there is something about Rose's paintings that work. I won't name names, but I have seen other artists try to capture every last rivet and rust flake only to have the entire painting fail and look cartoonish.

     He was best painting steam. Watercolor, as a medium, tends to be nicer to steam with its sharp contrasts than it is to diesels with their bright colors and reflective surfaces. Watercolor also allows an artist to capture the randomness of smoke effects much easier than other mediums. Due in part to the way the water and the paint can just spread across the paper.

     About two years after In the Traces came out, Rose died of cancer at age 61. The world lost a great artist. The reality of this can be seen in the current price of the book, which originally sold new for about $35 and is now available used for more than $100.

     The book itself is a collection of Rose's paintings spanning mainly the steam and interurban era but including a few examples of the diesel era. My personal favorites are the night scenes he did. I love the reflections off the rails and how he paints light and the absence of light in a very subtle and effective way. This book may be hard to get, but if you have a chance to pick up a copy and want to let your mind wander to another era, I highly recommend it.