Here is an image cropped from a photo that I took in Portugal, on a visit in July of 2001. Mauro showed me Cascais, a beach town near Lisbon. When I cropped this photo, I was trying to focus on the patterns and colors in the bright sunshine.
Yesterday Mel showed me his new laptop with a tablet. Naturally I wanted to try it out. "Give me that thing," I said graciously. I used the little Microsoft Paint program to do a very quick (five minute) sketch of Mel, just to see how it the tablet works for making art, and to show Mel that there are no hard feelings, even if he does have a tablet and I don't. Later, he e-mailed the file to me, and I opened it in Painter IX to do a little cleanup, and then cropped the image. When Mel came home tonight, I said I was planning to post this sketch on my blog. "Good, it is already posted on mine."* Wouldn't you know. . .
*AccountabilityBloke.blogspot.com
Here north of Boston, it has been cool, overcast, and rainy most of the day, and right now it is threatening to rain again. I grew up in southern Colorado, and this doesn't seem like summer weather to me! But the weather we are having here reminds me of our trip to Scotland two summers ago, when I really learned the meaning of a cold day in July. Tonight I came across this souvenir of our travels through Scotland, and cropped it just a bit to improve the composition.
A few weeks ago, I used my phonecam to take some pictures at a wonderful garden store in Marblehead. Among the photos was a picture of some pretty terrific petunias. But later when I looked closely at the image, I saw some little problems here and there, effects of the summer heat. Besides, the composition was not balanced. Tonight I came across the image again, and still loved those petunias. So first I tried a little digital editing in Painter IX which was alright, but does NOT appear here, because I decided to crop the image instead. (One of the benefits of my new phonecam is that you can do that without losing clarity.) So this is a crop of amazing petunias, exactly as they came out of the camera.
Here is the latest version of the pencil sketch I have been doing. This is to get ready to paint my next portrait, and sometimes making a sketch in pencil helps me get ready. Today I made some minor adjustments in the face, added some highlights, and then worked on the hair and blocked in the clothing.
I created this painting (and collage) back when I was in college at the University of Colorado. I did a series of paintings inspired by the moon landings. (Mel calls it my Star Trek series.) I wish I had more images of that series. This is acrylic paint used as water media, with the rising planet Earth cut from another piece of paper and pasted onto the surface. I am posting this because today Mel and I went to see "An Inconvenient Truth" which begins and ends with the first photo of the Earth seen from space. I haven't done any paintings in my planetary series in quite a while (but maybe I should!). although this basic composition still turns up in my landscapes as images of sun and mountains. But "An Inconvenient Truth" is a great reminder of what that first photo of Earth meant, and the commitment to the environment that came along with it for a lot of us back then. Like this old painting, that commitment needs to be dusted off and reconsidered (however inconvenient), because after all, there is just one planet Earth.
Today Heather and I went to one of our favorite garden stores. I saw this table full of impatiens, and the colors were so bright that it looked like a fiesta. I took a picture with my phonecam, trying to capture the diagonal rows of flowerpots against the diagonal lines of the table. Tonight, I cropped the image to get the best composition I could.
Around here, it finally gets warm enough to swim about the same time the clematis gets ready to bloom. The other day, I noticed this clematis blossom open on this chain link fence, so there was an opportunity to get a picture with the purple clematis against the bright color of the pool in the background. I took a picture with my phonecam. Later I cropped the image to get the composition the way I wanted it, and then opened it in Painter IX to do a little digital cleanup in the background.
The other day, I saw these yellow daisies outside the gym. The color in the morning sun was amazing, so I took a picture with my phonecam. Tonight, I cropped the image to adjust the composition. As I did, I realized that the color had lost something in the translation, so I adjusted the saturation just a bit to get that yellow to glow in the sunshine.
During my first trip to Portugal, Mauro showed me a garden and this castle in the center of town in Braga. I took a quick picture even though the sun was about to set. (It was October, but flowers were still in bloom.) I captured the fading light on the castle, but there were some problems with the image, which was disappointing because it is such a nice memory. For one thing, I had taken the picture with someone standing in front of one of the arches. Tonight I decided to see what I could do about it. First I rotated and cropped the image, then I opened it in Painter IX and made a copy of it. I cut and paste to create an empty archway, then used digital pastel to enhance the illusion. Now the image matches my memory of the magic of Portugal and the surprise of finding a castle downtown.
I saw these iris on a recent evening walk. I liked the muted colors, so I took a picture with my phonecam. Once I opened the image in my computer, the iris were royal blue, so I had to readjust a bit to reproduce the color I actually saw in the soft, fading evening light.
Yesterday we went out for a Father's Day breakfast at a popular local diner. Naturally, we had to wait for a table. While we were waiting, I saw this beautiful yellow rose in a planter outside the diner, so I took a picture with my phonecam. Tonight I rotated the image and cropped it. At that point, I noticed two distracting marks, one on the stone, and one among the leaves. So I opened the image in Painter IX and did a little cleanup with digital pastel.
This image began long ago, as a black and white photo of me and my dad, taken by my Uncle Ike. He was a great photographer and also a great dad himself. The photo is one of my all-time favorites, so I decided to colorize it and post it for Father's Day. I scanned the photo and opened the image in Painter IX. I used digital watercolor to tint the photo, trying to keep the colors muted to go with the tones in the original photograph. This was a good project for Father's Day. It was fun to "collaborate" with my uncle across time and space, and also a way to spend some time with my dad, through the blessing of memory and the magic of art. I was lucky to have a father who always knew how to make me feel like a million bucks.
We went to Long Hill Gardens today to walk the dogs. There was a lot to see and I took several photos with my cameraphone. But the biggest surprise was suddenly coming upon this field of ferns. I had never seen so many fern plants together before, and I love the pattern the leaves make. Tonight I cropped the photo to make the pattern easier to see.
This is from a recent walk at twilight, the best time to walk dogs in hot weather. I saw these wild roses growing against a chain link fence. I liked the soft colors in the evening light so I took a picture with my phonecam. Tonight I cropped the image to get the best view of the cascades of flowers.
I think it is time for another picture of Portugal. Tonight I cropped this image out of a photograph Mauro took of me, standing on Portuguese sand on my very first day in Portugal ever. (In fact, this was the first stop coming directly from the airport on my very first trip.) When I saw the beach, I was surprised at how much it looks like the beaches in Massachusetts, but then Porto and Boston are at approximately the same latitude. Now when I see the ocean from the beaches here on Boston's North Shore, it is nice to remember that Portugal is just on the other side of the water.
The other evening I headed out to Target with my daughter, to make an ordinary purchase at a very ordinary destination. But the company was great and the sky was amazing, so I took a picture with my phonecam. Later, I cropped the image to capture only the sky. Art every day means looking for images everywhere, but sometimes you have to remember to look up!
Here's another photo from a recent walk. I liked the look of the flower against the pattern of the leaves, so I took a picture with my phonecam. Tonight I cropped the image to get a pleasing composition.
Here is another souvenir of Portugal. I took this picture in a little town call Ermesinda, near Porto, during my visit in July of 2001. It seems odd to take pictures of a vegetable garden, but I wanted to take this picture because I always noticed the beautiful blue-green plants growing in the countryside around Porto. It was kale, of course, called couve, in Portuguese. One of the many wonderful things I have learned from my connections in Brazil and Portugal is how to make feijoida (a black bean dish, typical food for celebrations) and to serve it with kale and with sliced oranges. This morning, I planted some kale in my own garden, and I remembered this photo and decided to post it.
I call this a fantastic drive not because it was a beautiful day (although it was) but because this image has been digitally edited. I cropped this image out of a photo I took this morning with my phonecam as we drove towards Boston. Tonight I cropped the image to get the composition I wanted, but the buildings were all reading as gray, gray, gray. So I decided to open the image in Painter IX and add a litle color with digital pastel. Now the image is less realistic, but it does a better job of communicating how exciting it was to see Boston in the bright morning sun.
This is a view of the Atlantic Ocean seen from Route 127, heading from Beverly up to Beverly Farms. This image began as a photo taken with my cell phone from the passenger seat of a car on a rainy day. To get this ready to post, I rotated and cropped the image. In the original photo, you could see the raindrops on the car window. The effect was interesting, but the raindrops were getting in the way of the view, so I opened the image in Painter IX and got rid of the raindrops with digital pastel.
The inspiration for this piece of digital art was dance, specifically the new waltz figures we have been learning in ballroom dance class, and the way it feels to make circle after circle on the dance floor. I used Painter's pattern pen tool to make this image, and thought about the turning dance steps across the floor as I moved the cursor in this rectangular space.
This is the latest version of the pencil sketch for the next portrait I am going to paint. I have been looking at the pencil sketch all week, comparing it to the photograph I am using as a source. Today I finally had a chance to work on the pencil sketch, so I made some of the adjustments I have been thinking about all week. Most of the changes have to do with the shape of the face, and the way the hair frames the face.
It rained hard all day and more rain is predicted through Sunday. Everyone is tired of rain, and it seems a shame that it is raining just as the rhododendrons are blooming all over the place. I took this picture anyway, through a window screen. I was trying to capture the rain on the leaves and the window. I decided I liked the effect of the screen. However, the window was dusty, so I opened the image in Painter IX and cleaned it up with a little digital pastel.
I always associate poppies with the field of red flowers in the Wizard of Oz. These are just as magical, but are much closer to home. I saw them on a recent walk here in Beverly. I liked the color of the flowers, as well as the texture and silver-green color of the leaves, so I took a picture with my new phonecam. I am still amazed at how much detail it captures. Tonight I cropped the image to focus on the four bright flowers.
Sometimes it is fun to go back and look at the art work I did in college. This is a monoprint I made for a college class; I used cardboard cutouts and corrugated paper to create the image. Although the image seems to be faded, I still like the composition. But I noticed that one of the lines on the left side was missing or faded, and it seemed to throw the composition off balance. So I opened the image in Painter IX and restored just the one line by cutting and pasting. Then I used digital pastel to even out the color of the background. I guess this is a kind of time-travel, a collaboration with a younger version of myself.
Here is another photo that I took last week at the garden store in Marblehead. I am not sure whether these are mums or zinnias. But I was interested in the patterns made by the pink and yellow petals, so I took a photo with my phonecam. Tonight I cropped the image just a bit for posting.
Well, we are back to rainy days here in Massachusetts. Today when I was leaving the gym, I noticed this newly planted rhododendron. I liked the way the raindrops looked on the blossoms, so I stopped and took a picture with my phonecam, despite the fact that I was getting wet. Later, I did I little cleanup of the background with Painter IX, and cropped the image for posting.
There are so many flowering trees in Massachusetts, but one kind I don't often see around here is the redbud tree. (I remember walking on the campus of the University of Kansas in spring, under a canopy of redbud trees.) So when I saw a redbud tree in bloom on a recent walk here in Beverly, I took a picture with my phonecam. The tree looked nice against the white house and black shutters. Tonight I cropped this image to get a closer look at the tiny buds that cover the branches.
Time for another picture from Portugal. This is from my trip in July of 2001. Mauro showed me Lisbon, and we explored the Alfama and then the Castelo de Sao Jorge. This souvenir shop is near the castle. I took the photograph because I liked the building, the colors, and the patterns of the merchandise. But I didn't buy anything in the shop. Photos are the best souvenirs.
