More Kansas Trivia

"A grain elevator in Hutchinson is 1/2 mile long and holds 46 million bushels in its 1,000 bins."

What's more, this largest grain elevator is only one of several huge granaries in that City. The east side of 'Hutch', as it is familiarly known among the locals, is a monument to the Wheat State. Obviously, these grain elevators serve as an inter modal collection point for the wheat harvest as both roadways and railways both serve them. Straight trucks haul the grain from the field to a local elevator where the grains are moisture tested, checked for foreign matter, and weighed, and then dried and stored for future shipment. Next, semi-trailer trucks haul the grain to larger elevators from which it is transferred to a food processor or to a port for shipment to an overseas market. The elevators also serve to store wheat for future delivery. I am sure that the functions of these mammoth grain storage facilities are a lot more complicated than I have portrayed, and I'd be interested in hearing more about them and there smaller local counterparts. If you haven't seen them, check them out on Google Earth.

Colorado Plains Elevator

Another grain elevator ends up on paper. It's still used at harvest time . The quantity of grain that can be handled has been vastly expanded by the six large cylinders that flank and back-up the original building. It's typical to see an old elevator next to more modern structures, including large concrete silos. The new structures dwarf the original, whose function is altered from grain storage to equipment housing. A lot of scrap steel will be available when this early expansion is eventually replaced by a concrete one. Of course, that's true only if the price per ton makes salvage feasible. Otherwise, it will just sit there, oxidizing.

Elevator in the Palouse

Driving around Kansas, I had the opportunity to photograph numerous grain elevators. I have been using the photos for subjects of watercolors. I particularly liked to paint the geometric shapes, shadows, textures, and perspectives of the grain elevators. The large sky areas are a challenge for a uniform wash. I have done about five paintings so far, but based on the number of photos I have, many more are coming.

This painting depicts an elevator in the Palouse, an area of wind-blown loess hills in southeast Washington known for growing wheat and lentils. This elevator is located south of Pullman on the highway to Clarksville. It has been scavenged for its corrugated metal siding which was added to the elevators to protect the wood siding. There were also several political campaign signs on the elevator that I omitted from the painting. The elevator still has a use as a billboard frame even if its crop storage days are long over. One of these days it will fall down after the ravaging is done and weather takes its toll.

One of my elevator paintings titled, Sentinels of the Prairie, appears on this blog. I hadn't seen any other paintings of grain elevators at art shows, so I thought that perhaps I had a unique subject. I had never Googled images for grain elevators, but I should have. Last week, in a local newspaper, a magazine called American Profile featured an article titled, "Prairie Cathedrals" about "A Montana couple's love affair with grain elevators". Upon reading the article, I learned there was an organization called the Country Grain Elevator Historical Society. The couple featured in the article, Bruce and Barbara Selyem of Bozeman, Montana, also have a web site. The full article, Prairie Cathedrals, is posted to the magazine's web site. There is even a slide show of photographs taken by Mr. Selyem. This new knowledge of mine makes my fascination with grain elevators as a subject for watercolor paintings seem more important.