The Springfield (Ohio) Art Museum has scheduled a three-month exhibit of David Knapp’s paintings.

The exhibit will begin around mid-July and run until September and is expected to show at least 20 pieces of Knapp’s work, which depict foundries.

Knapp enjoyed a long and successful career in the metalcasting business and is also an accomplished artist.

During his high school days at a military school in Baltimore, a teacher introduced Knapp to oil painting. Knapp then moved on to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for a degree in mechanical engineering, where he also painted off and on.

While at Lehigh, Knapp painted a mountain scene for an art department alumni show that won first prize, before going into the metalcasting business.

Knapp was running a large steel foundry in 1971 and did an oil painting of the facility.

“I was fascinated with the process,” Knapp told Modern Casting in 2018.

Each painting takes about two months to complete, Knapp told Modern Casting in 2018. That includes the approach to a foundry, taking photographs on multiple visits, then finally doing the painting.

The paintings are 28 in. x 42 in. in acrylics on canvas. From the originals, Knapp produces 11 x 17 color prints on card stock that are suitable for framing. And if you look closely, you might see Knapp himself in the corner of the pictures.

“We never see what goes on inside of foundries unless you have an open house,” Knapp said. “I decided I was going to try to document what the activities are in some of these foundries.”