Pumping station
Do you know that feeling of going somewhere every day and being so familiar with it that you don’t see something special or obvious – and then feeling delighted when you notice it? That’s what I want to do with my art. This image is of a 1960s sewerage pumping station on the Brunel Road Industrial Estate in Newton Abbot.
It’s a classic 1960s building, all glass, concrete and strange angles. Inside, the main mechanical workings remain the same with four large pipes served by Archimedes screws which drive the waste water along the course of the river out to the sewerage treatment works on the River Teign. The original display panels are intact, showing a schematic map of the town’s sewerage infrastructure together with lights to show faults along the way. Neatly out of the way is a modern computer system which now drives all the original displays.
Being inside is like being in a heritage Bond movie. One wrong move and there would be a disaster of epic toilet-flush proportions.
Part of my Postcards from Newton Abbot series of postcard-sized ink and watercolour sketches.
Ink: Platinum brun sepia pigmented ink
Pen: Sailor Fude de Mannen fountain pen
Watercolour: Derwent Graphitint watercolours
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