The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-11-26

And thus equipped HE'D me to
"The Little Art Gallery" one day
| the past week TO write very, very
learned story on the Symmetry and
color schemes" as eXemplified in
the steel Plant Pastels' of Mr..
Roderick d. Mckenzie. Sounds
rather WELL don't you think?
OF course, some day | am going
to write that story; but the story
/ I'm sending out today is one of real
/ heart interest, human interest,
about the man-more than about
the pictures, about Mr.. Mckenzie
himself, rather than his marvellous
works of art.
| As modest as school boy, with
seemingly none of the elation that
comes to most artists who have
achieved tremendous success, Mr..
Mckenzie talked with me about his
experiences at the steel plant, just
as if it We're all in the days work.
an the first place. said he, cit
was quite unique to have the OPP
portunity to paint the steel plant,
| because the concession made to me
was so unusual. At first, asked
for only two weeks in which to get
materials for my brush; later an
extension was requested and still
later, until it has covered period
unheard Of and unthought of in the
beginning.
/, Coming here from Mobile. which
is my home town (even through the
/ Ok I unnt,t a hYA1
maintaining a studio in Paris as well
as in Simla-during the time
painted elephants and tigers in
India at Khyber Pass and other
frontier points-always my studio
in Mobile has been home) saw the
wonderful chance to make beauty
of the steel plant operations.
Through the offices of my good
friend and former fellow townsman,
DR.. C. B. Fowlkes, | came to Bir-
mingham. stayed through the
kindly encouragement of another
good friend and Mr. Hartley Ander-
son.
ITO ask to receive permission
from those high in authority with
the steel plant, was indeed pleas
ure-the pictorial point of view
looming high in my minds eye, the
blast furnaces first attracting my
attention.
For six months ! concentrated
there, never once allowing myself
to see anything else, for fear of di.
verting my attention for first i'm
pressions' are always desirable.
after the blast furnaces, | di
rected my attention to the Bessemel
converter and open hearth and fol
the past few weeks | have been fin
ishing a piece of sculpture relevant
to this. The title is Making Bottom
in An Open Hearth Furnace Fou
men and the door of the furnace. il
the composition, each man doing hi
own particular work; the groul
stands in relief, on plane eigh
feet long-the furnace door being
three feet in height!
"a favorite among my as pic
tures?" Mr.. Mckenzie repeated
after me as glanced at the flames
of red and yellow and blue and
green psatels, radiating their beauty
and perfect symmetry through the
Little Art Gallery. IF coult
pick one picture perhaps it would b.
The Converter Seen from the Oper
Hearth
SThere the spirit of the gigantic
work is shown--the crucial momen'
pictured when iron is turned tt
steel-the great climaeteric in it
evolution"
This picture was exhibited in tn,
Del Gado museum at the New Or
leans art exhibition, may say "er
PEASANT"
Another picture | like yer,
much is The One Hundred To,
Ladels at Work." said Mr. Me
Kenzie. "This shows iron goin,
through the Bessemer process first
and then the open hearth comm,
out finer. better steel, thence mt
m les OF rails.
Considerable Friendship among
the men is the result Of my expe
rience at the steel plant; warm
genuine friendship, for in ever.
way the men assisted me in M.
work. whenever they could.
at took four months to paint tn,
picture catalouged as Tapping Gu
Ar Open Hearth Furnace Som,
times five minutes during an entir'
week, was the only time | coult
glimpse the process; delays Of on
sort and another would put off tn,
time when the men expected to tai
out'=and when the crucial momen
finally did arrive had to work lik
fury to get it.
eight pots of Stag in one night
which 1T took just one minute each
to dump-was what | had to Wort
on in the picture Dumping Stag,
which is perhaps the most familia
of all the steel plant pictures e
most people-as nearly everybod.
has seen this particular thing done
, often.
"For the 'Bessemer Convertel
Taking Iron sat for hours ans
hours waiting for just the half min.
ute which it takes for the process
to come about, so that | could get it
Joseph Pencil, the world re
Drowned artist, said last white
W he visited Birmingham. tina
Mr.. l.cKenzie had attempted tn
impossible in his "Steel Plan
Pastels" just how far wroni
he was, is shown by the marvelou
collection which Birmingham ha
had the pleasure of viewing the pas
week at the Little Art Gallery.
Industrially Alabama is know
. through it's great iron and stee
plants, and now it has fallen to tn
talent and genius of Mr.. Roderic
D. Mckenzie. Alabama born an
Alabama bred, to proclaim to tn