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Abstract Art Who would have guessed

December 15th, 2015

Abstract Art  Who would have guessed

Season's Greetings All!

As my journey through photography continues I have expanded my interests to include a different venue of creativity that I call 'photographic art." It is an art process whereby I've used my photographs as a base and made various digital alterations, additions, enhancements to create a work I'd be proud to display in my home and which I also display in my online gallery. Thankfully, though I continue to view myself as a photographer, these artforms have been well received by my peers and colleagues and by my viewing audience and customers and have become a significant branch of my portfolio. So then, and I suppose it is only natural, as I have explored this relatively new aspect of my work I have also pushed my personal envelope into what I can only refer to as abstract art.

Once I took stock of the number of abstract artworks that are present in my online portfolio, it seemed appropriate to gather them in a new Gallery of my portfolio named, naturally, Abstract Art. Here are examples of what you will find when you visit this gallery.

First are a couple of images that are "realistic" abstracts. These are each based on a photograph providing a setting that is recognizable but textures, and/or colors and lighting are present to create mood and promote expression at an emotional and sensory level.

Time Travel
 photo jacksonville201503-526da_2.jpg

"Time Travel" was taken looking out from the Timucuan Preserve in Florida to the St. Johns River which is close to Jacksonville. The sense of history and envisioning another time was very real to the visitor. The texture and coloring conveys that sense to the viewer. By the way, since our oldest son, daughter-in-law and two of our Grandkids live in Jacksonville we visit there a lot. The area around Jacksonville is replete with history and photo ops!

Aurora Borealis Over Florida
 photo Jacksonville20141106-2120da.jpg

"Aurora Borealis Over Florida" is also from an image taken near Jacksonville, Florida. The area is Big Talbot Island State Park at a beach called "Boneyard Beach." This is a fun piece based on what I thought was a clever what-if. What would the Aurora Borealis look like over Florida, a fantasy event for sure! Well, later I spoke to an old time Floridian and was told that the Aurora Borealis was actually seen in Florida at least once. Who knew?

Now let's look at a couple of "pure" abstracts. They don't show concrete images but use shapes, textures, and/or colors to convey feelings, impressions or sense of a message or theme. In my usage, I still like to guide the impressions of the viewer with comments alongside the image.

Feverish
 photo Smoke-2da2.jpg

I have to admit, this one I created without knowing what I wanted to convey. I did have an idea how I wanted it to look, and after working with the image in several digital programs, this resulted. Then after studying it I felt it showed a number of images or faces as if by some kind of stream of consciousness. After my wife saw some additional forms I hadn't discerned, I realized this was one of those works that everyone will perceive in their own way. Research turned up a process that I felt fit what I saw...phantasmagoria. You know, ..."a fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever." :) What a fun and a very satisfying creative process!

For the last example I'll show a before and after.

Before:
 photo Marathon20130428-352-Edit_2.jpg

After:
Rabbit Hole
 photo Spiral-2da.jpg

And thus Alice's Rabbit Hole was born! It is hard to believe that one image came from the other!

To see all the images in the Abstract Art Gallery click on this link: Abstract Art.

Enjoy!

I will be producing blogs on a regular basis, so until my next blog update I wish you all the best and be sure to visit some place beautiful. It will do you good!

I'd love to see your comments about this blog. Visit my website and join the email list!

Talking Art on Todays Art

April 14th, 2015

Talking Art on Todays Art

I am excited to share with you that I'll be the special guest on the Talking Art webcast tonight at 8:00pm (Mountain), 10:00pm (Eastern). The discussion will be held on Google+ Hangouts. You can see the preview on this link, https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cf7fbieruc66s16iprkdphg63b8 . The host of the show is Arizona Lowe who is very active conducting webcasts, including Talking Art every Tuesday.

A prime discussion will be about the growing engagement in digital art by today's photographers. You are invited to view the preview and hopefully you'll decide to use Google+ to join the hangout and watch the broadcast!

Interesting Places - Bryce Canyon National Park

February 2nd, 2015

A couple of autumns ago my wife Sandy, myself, and our two dogs, Cam and Oakley, made an RV trip to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. While going through my photograph files recently I found a number of images from that trip I really like, but hadn't published yet. So now I am adding them to my online gallery and thought I'd share a few with you on this blog.

First, Bryce Canyon left us stunned by its magnificent beauty, startling formations, and vivid colors. Every day was a "Wow!" day. A big part of the park is made up of a number of natural amphitheaters carved out of the edges of the Paunsaugunt Plateau by wind, rain and continual freezing and unfreezing. The result is like stepping into an alien world. The ground is rich in iron oxide resulting in startling colors against the vivid blue sky. One of the amphitheaters is called "Black Birch Canyon." In this image you can see incredible formations that appear to guard the canyon like the statutes in "Lord of the Rings."

Black Birch Canyon Overlook
 photo Bryce1-99a.jpg

Continuing our view of Black Birch Canyon you can see a semi-circle of hoodoos seemingly forming a fortress wall that would fit in perfectly with any number of fantasy games kids play today. Hoodoos are tall skinny spires of rock that protrude from the bottom of basins and lands. According to the National Park Service website: "nowhere in the world are they as abundant as in the northern section of Bryce Canyon National Park." The difference between Hoodoos and pinnacles or spires is that hoodoos have a variable thickness at different levels of the pillar, almost like a totem pole. I told you it is a strange place!

Hoodoo Walls
 photo Bryce1-34a-2.jpg

A little further down the park road is a turnout for "Natural Bridge." That indeed is the name. Interestingly enough however, according to geologists, a natural bridge is caused by a stream, an arch is caused by weathering, rain and freezing and unfreezing. They think the latter caused this formation so it is technically an arch. However, after forming, flowing water made the arch larger. So like I said, it is a strictly technical point, so I call it both!

Natural Bridge Arch
 photo Bryce1-276a.jpg

A couple of other formations, which are also variations of hoodoos are Thors Hammer:

Thors Hammer
 photo Bryce1-233a.jpg

and, what I call a large gnarly rock sitting on top of a tall hoodoo!

Hoodoo Supporting A Rock
 photo Bryce1-277a.jpg

If you haven't been to Bryce Canyon, then you need to put it on your list!

Accompanying this blog publication and to thank you for your interest, Bryce Canyon Art and Photography prints are now on sale through 2/23/2015. Prices for these prints begin at just $19 (+shipping & taxes).! For added convenience the images are temporarily combined into a single Gallery. Just click on this link: Bryce Canyon Gallery. No coupon code is required. The reduced prices are reflected on the individual image pages. Enjoy!

Until my next blog update I wish you all the best and be sure to visit some place beautiful this month!

I'd love to see your comments about this blog. Visit my website and join the email list!