26 October, 2026
I have childhood memories of steel mills like this one in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I hadn't thought about them in years, but when I moved to the German state of Nordrhein Westfalen, which has steel mills of its own, those memories came back to me, and I began to think of the giant industrial sites in a new light, with a particular kind of beauty. You'll see on other pages that steel mills are not a new topic for me, but one I like to return to from time to time. 
I'm drawing this scene now, and I'll post updates of the painting as it progresses.
I'm blocking in the large areas of shadow here. This stage is a lot of fun because you see a lot of change in a relatively short amount of time. It's also a very important step because the drawing is so complicated and the shadows are what gives everything shape and context.
