Iron And Wood - The Old Smithy Photograph by Weston Westmoreland

Iron And Wood - The Old Smithy

by Weston Westmoreland

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Title

Iron And Wood - The Old Smithy

Artist

Weston Westmoreland

Medium

Photograph - Photograph / Digital Oil Painting

Description

Iron and Wood - The Old Smithy. Digital oil painting from my original photo.

The old Medieval Smithy with it's water powered hammer and bellows remains silenced in the middle of the beech forest that produced the coal it fed on, in the Natural Park of Pagoeta, Basque Country.

Smiths of the time earned high wages because the job was literally life consuming. The heat, the noise, the fumes and the dirt in suspension killed them early in life.

The square reservoir behind and above the first building gathered the waters of this small creek that were used by the big smithy to work iron ore into pig iron ingots. The water was then collected in an intermediate reservoir between the main forge and the one you see and used to forge the iron and turn it into tools. There were several secondary workshops downriver that repeated the process. This small creek worked the wheels of several forges.

The forest surrounding them, now a natural park with a gorgeous botanic garden at the summit, supplied the wood with which they produced the charcoal to feed the furnaces.

When you look at this image you can imagine the noises that surrounded it, the wind in the trees, the creek flowing by with crystal like rumors, the water cascading on the wheels, and the big hammer rhythmically pounding the soft red-hot iron blocks with its muffled beat. This smithy is operated every Sunday for people to see and the view is both intense and hypnotizing. I have been there a couple of times, so I do not need to imagine the sounds, I just remember them.

This is the digital oil painting of an original picture of mine you can find here:

http://westonwestmoreland.com/featured/old-smithy-no1-weston-westmoreland.html

You can learn more about what drives me in my blog:

http://inspiringthoughtsandimages.com/

Weston Westmoreland.