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The Last Circus Train in Tehachapi
By Gene Stirm, Tehachapi Artist
Oil paint on canvas 24 x 48 inches, May 2, 2017
When the announcement came on January, fourteenth of 2017, that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, after 146 years of performances, was folding its big tent forever on May 21, 2017, my heart sank. I fell in love with the Circus the first time I saw it in 1950, at the age of five. Throughout my life whenever the Circus was in town, if I possibly could, I would go, eventually introducing my family to the Greatest Show on Earth.
The Painting
I made the first sketch on January 17, 2017, based on photos I took when the Circus Train past through the loop in the summer of 2006 and at the Green Street crossing as it passed through town in 2010. Once I finalized the sketch, I began painting in oils a week later. I worked on the painting for five months. Finally, with tears in my eyes, I finished the painting May 21, 2017, and christened it, The Last Circus Train.
One caveat I must add, my Great Grandfather, Otto Gerhart Niehaus, came to America as a traipse artist performing with the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1865. He toured for four years before taking an engineering position with Thomas Edison at Menlo Park, New Jersey. So you see, there is Circus in my blood.
By Gene Stirm, Tehachapi Artist
Oil paint on canvas 24 x 48 inches, May 2, 2017
When the announcement came on January, fourteenth of 2017, that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, after 146 years of performances, was folding its big tent forever on May 21, 2017, my heart sank. I fell in love with the Circus the first time I saw it in 1950, at the age of five. Throughout my life whenever the Circus was in town, if I possibly could, I would go, eventually introducing my family to the Greatest Show on Earth.
The Painting
I made the first sketch on January 17, 2017, based on photos I took when the Circus Train past through the loop in the summer of 2006 and at the Green Street crossing as it passed through town in 2010. Once I finalized the sketch, I began painting in oils a week later. I worked on the painting for five months. Finally, with tears in my eyes, I finished the painting May 21, 2017, and christened it, The Last Circus Train.
One caveat I must add, my Great Grandfather, Otto Gerhart Niehaus, came to America as a traipse artist performing with the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1865. He toured for four years before taking an engineering position with Thomas Edison at Menlo Park, New Jersey. So you see, there is Circus in my blood.