SCULPTING MONTIETH ROCK—SECOND SECTION

Following up on my previous post on sculpting Montieth Rock (aka, “Rooster Rock”), I got fresh information thanks to that first blog post.  Clive Wright, a long-time railroad friend from Northern California, did a quick search for pictures of Montieth Rock and came up with ebay listings for a postcard that shows the geographic western face of the rock.  I followed the link and ordered one.  The postcard turned out to be published by the Southern Pacific.  This likely dated to a time shortly after the completion of the Natron Cutoff (Cascade Line) in the late 1920s.  This was a time when the SP was promoting the scenic wonders along its lines.  

 

The post card appears to be a colorized version of a black and white photo with the tell-tales of that process (colors a bit too “perfect”).  The photo appears to have been taken fairly soon after the line was placed in service as the forest has not regrown around the railroad clearing and grading work.  Later photos from the steam era (could be post World War II) show more vegetation in the area.  The photo is good enough to provide me with the missing view and led to slight revisions of my notional rock work with paperclay on that geo-west face.  Most notable is a bulge in the mid-section, suggestive of a rooster wing.  Using the photo as a guide, I applied more paperclay.

 

Geographic west face of my model of Montieth Rock with additional clay molding based on the postcard view shown in the foreground.

 

Also in response to my original blogpost concerning sculpting the rock face was a separate request for additional, tighter in, photos of my rock-work.  I am an absolute amateur sculptor, but the paperclay proved a good art medium for me to achieve the desired appearance.  Montieth Rock is a volcanic plug that has shed any surrounding material and weathered—rounded or smoothed further.  One happy accident was the way the paperclay cracked as it dried and set. Many of those cracks usefully represented similar cracks I observe in photos.  I filled most of the horizontal cracks, but left the vertical cracks which are seen in photos of the rock.

 

Close photo of the revised geo-west face of Montieth Rock.  The bulges in the center of the photo were added to existing vertical ridges to expand the rock on this face.  The happy accident of cracks in the clay molding are evident.

 

Close photo of the geo-SE face of Montieth Rock.  All of the rock features protruding from the base rock are seen in photos of the rock.

 

I added a protective covering of polyethethelyne to serve as a water barrier per the paperclay instructions.  I experimented with a back wash on the rock-work, but that flowed very freely down the glossy vertical surfaces, not achieving a useful look, but useful as an experiment.  Instead, I reverted to my “Plan-A” by applying a coat of gray paint to rock work that I can then add artist colors to.