We could be being artistic but not realise that we are. Creating a scene is art (ok or maybe craft). Creating a diorama without a railway would almost certainly be seen as artwork.

Chris M

Re: 'Creating a diorama without a railway would almost certainly be seen as artwork'.

You've evidently attended our local polytech; that seems to be their approach.

The railway (or lack of) seems to be the key.

With railway: Merely a 'Toy' and definitely NOT  a work of art.

Without railway: A 'Work of Art', and I'll pay you very large amounts of money to purchase it.

The difference that two rails can make...

I often find myself referring to the train stuff as a 'hobby' to those who aren't interested, and then afterwards thinking no, I'm selling it short there ... seeing as it involves memory, emotion, etc.

An interesting discussion going on here.
If we're not artists wouldn't we all just choose the layout we want (with no modifications) and use peco set track? The fact we add colour to our rails to make them more realistic is itself artistic. Bushs, shrubs, buildings all make up our artistic diorama. I'm feeling that the hangdog brigade are up in arms claiming "art, not me" more than anything else.
I however, love the scenery aspect. It's the real life glue between the toy and life. Without it; it's just a very expensive marble run.
I do though consider myself as a bit of an artist (personal trumpet time). I enjoy painting my landscape, my buildings and general scenery. I paint pictures in both oil and watercolour and especially enjoy pencil sketching.



Smug me. That's my little girl. She's 4 and can already use the controller, point motors and decoupling magnets.  Proud daddy.

Will do commissions for loads of cash.

Great drawing and a lovely daughter. You have every right to be proud of both. 

Quote from: Bealman on May 17, 2016, 01:43:03 AM
Great drawing and a lovely daughter. You have every right to be proud of both. 

She has one done by me every year. Not sure how many more years that will be!!

"No Dad, it;s just not cool". Dread the day when I'm not her moon any more .

I have three daughters, mate, and I can assure that you have nothing to worry about. There maybe a "not cool" period, but as they get older they get over that. My oldest daughter (30) just went to a Bowie tribute show with me & Mrs b. She was the youngest one there!!!

Quote from: slippyshome on May 17, 2016, 01:34:29 AM]

Smug me.

You have every right to be smug, (and proud). You have quite a talent. With her facial structure, your daughter is going to grow up into a very attractive young lady - and she is into model trains! What more could a Dad want? 

Quote from: Agrippa on May 14, 2016, 10:22:04 AM
At last, someone with a grasp of logic  !

I think we may be outnumbered here.

Firstly, one cannot unconciously be an artist, because there is no intent. It's possible to do things which are artistic, but that in and of itself doesn't make the practitioner an artist.

Secondly, an individual professing to be an artist cannot speak for the whole group, in exactly the same way as some watery tart chucking a sword at you doesn't make you the king.

and thirdly, arguing that if you're not an artist, you'd just chuck a few bits of track down and that would be good enough (I'm paraphrasing here) is on a par with 'well if you're not a Christian, why don't you just go round murdering people?' Which is a question I've seriously had to answer.

A part of what many people consider art is created by craftspeople. These are people who are highly skilled and creative, and take a great deal of care and pride in their work. They are not artists. I am with them.

So the answer to the question: 'Are we all artists?' is 'NO' because I am not.

The answer to the question 'Are some of us artists?' is 'YES' because some of us undoubtedly are.

....absolutely!!!!

or  we  strive to  be....

just  that  some of us  are  a  bit  Jackson Pollack..

If you want my opinion, which you probably don't, but I'm opining anyway (probably opining for the fjords...), the layout I have is a mixture of craft and engineering (neither particularly good) - certainly something creative, but it's never struck me as "art".

However - at some point early on I started taking close-up pictures of the layout at or near "ground level" to see what scenic flaws were evident - ,took me a few goes to work out how to do that (i.e. use something other than the camera's automatic mode) - and that has kind of developed (excuse the pre-digital pun) into setting up little scenes, which when photographed from the right angle could be said to have some artistic merit, or at least I look at the picture and think to myself "dang, that looks kind of nice". Admittedly full of flaws if you look carefully, but that was the main point of photo, but again with some much improvement and better photography I could kind of imagine an an arty-pharty photobook. So while the layout itself may not be art, it might be possible to make "art" from it.

Anyway, as the exam paper went, "What is Art? Discuss. Use additionally supplied 500 sheets of A4 copier paper if required".

For some reason I thought this thread was triggered by this year's Turner Prize nominations.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2016

See Josephine Pryde's entry at the bottom of the page. Most definitely not N gauge!

Claude Dreyfus

And it's soooo radical and 'artistic' (not)! Although I can't enlarge the image, what is being exhibited as 'an original art work' would seem to be a 7-inch gauge train / rail set; the sorts of 'miniature' railways  seen in parks all around the world.

Art imitating  life perhaps; can't say I'm Impressed with the title: 'Pretentious' comes to mind.

Thanks for finding the article for us BTW; the Tate remains  the same... 

I consider my layout to be a 3D picture with trains moving thru' it,but I don't know if I would consider it a work of art, but I do a bit of real art as well mainly Dog portraits.

Ditape: Impressive. Thank you for sharing the dogs with us; are they your own animals? What medium do you use? Acrylic; Oils or..? Your 'feathering' / softening of the edges would seem to indicate the possible use of an airbrush.  is this the case? 

Again, thanks.