Le Vilain Paysage (The Ugly Landscape)

In the community college where I am now, they share space with a nursing school and musical and theater arts, and there’s no ventilation, poor plumbing, so we have to use acrylic paint.  I dislike acrylics for a number of reasons, many of which are the same as why artistis switched from tempera to oils in the 1400s in the first place. 

I’ve tried “Golden Open” to get some color that doesn’t dry quite so fast, but it is also runny. I hate the texture. It felt like using liquid acrylic, but it’s the best I could do for what’s required for this class.

The class requirements are a series of at least 5 paintings, and Hubs came up with the brilliant idea of doing “ruined landscapes.”  I am a landscape artist, so I decided to do 18x24” paintings of local disasters. 

“Le Vilain Paysage,” (The Ugly Landscape)

1. Abandoned textile mill, Cosmopolis Washington. 

Title: “Weyerhaeuser”

This mill, “Cosmo Specialty Fibers” processed wood pulp to create rayon and other wood-based fibers. There’s a ton of stuff on the Washington Ecology website explaining all the problems with this mill. It was owned for 60 years by Weyerhaeuser, a multinational company, before they unloaded it in 2010. The buyer has been struggling since then to get it up and running and seems to ahve given up. It has leaking storage tanks of acid, “wooden” wastewater pipelines running through neighborhood, and is generally pretty much a toxic area, complete with dioxins and other nasty ethyl-methyl-bad-stuff laying around, including more than 800,000 gallons of corrosive chemicals. 

2.  Title: “Rayonier”. 

The problem with clear cutting large areas is that it opens up an area to erosion, which creates problems for local fish and other animals who eat the fish. It can also result in mudslides. As a result, the west has increased their oversight and rules regarding timber harvesting. 

The southeastern US doesn’t have nearly as many rules about sustainable harvesting practices and not harming the wildlife.  But, it may just be a coincidence that Rayonier, one of the largest timber companies in the US, has recently sold off much of their Pacific Northwest holdings and invested in harvesting timber in the southeastern US.  

3.  Title: “Amazon”

In July of 2025, the body of a 40-foot long female Grey Whale washed up on the shores of Whidbe Island.  She appeared to have a broken jaw, with blood coming from her mouth, along with dents and holes in her tail. Many Greys come into Puget Sound to feed, It is generally accepted that broken jaws are unlikely to be caused by anything other than ship strikes, mostly like the large freighters that run up and down the Sound, bringing in cheap consumer goods from overseas, packed in giant metal Lego boxes. 

4. Title: “Mitsui and Co.”

Dust storms are not uncommon in Washington, including one that “came out of nowhere” this year in June of 2025.  The main cause is thunderstorms in conjunction with dryland farming, which is conducted primarily to grown soft wheat in eastern Washington. The majority of this wheat is exported, and the greatest importer is Mitsui & Co of Japan, who acquired United Grain in 1969. Mitsui, a Japanese conglomerate, has offices and a processing plant at the Port of Seattle, where they prepare the grain to ship to Japan. 

3. Forest Fire, Olympic Peninsula. 

Title: “John Doe”

The Bear Gulch fire, which broke out July 6, 2025, is the largest fire on the Olympic Peninsula since 1951. As of this post, it has burned over 20000 acres and is only 50% contained. It has been determined to be human-caused, although intentionality vs. accident has not been established. 

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