Week 38 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 259

 It is all about the light. It is what they say about photography. And to me it is especially true in the fall. The light, with the sun lower in the horizon, combined with the changes in color on the rich foliage of summer makes fall a very good time to be out with a camera.

And even when you delete the color and go with black and white the light is still at work.

Day 260

Day 261

 And the fall colors are not just in the leaves but in the grasses and the last blooms of summer.

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Even the light in thru the greenhouse windows fell differently on these orchid blooms.

Kasha-Katuwe National Monument in Black and White

Standing Tall

There was something about the austere landscape of the Kasha-Katuwe National Monument which brought out my inner Ansel Adams. The cliffs and slot canyons were created by volcanic eruptions which occurred 6 to 7 million years ago that left pumice, ash, and tuff deposits over 1000 feet thick. Tremendous explosions from the Jemez volcanic field spewed pyroclasts, while searing hot gases blasted down slopes in an incandescent avalanche called a pyroclastic flow.  Wind and rain then went to work sculpting the landscape.

Kasha-Katuwe National Monument is approximately 40 miles Southwest of Santa Fe, NM and definitely worth the side trip. Come prepared to hike the 1.5 mile slot trail which rises 1,100 feet from the trail head.

Week 37 - 2017 in photographs

Day 252

Except for Day 255, the pink Hollyhock, this week was about the color yellow. It seems to be everywhere as the seasons begin to change. Sunflowers figure large in this week because it was the first time I had planted them and so a new captive photographic model. Georgia O'Keeffe once said she was not particularly fond of painting flowers but they were cheap models. I can see her point. With me it has been a time factor. The flowers are just right there outside the studio door.

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Day 255

 And the trees are beginning to turn yellow.

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 And the grasses. And some days it seems the very light itself is yellow.

Day 258

Week 36 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 245

More of summer's flowers and a hint of the fall to come. A shift in dominate colors. Morning mist on a summer warmed lake.

Day 246

Not sure the sunflowers will make it to full maturity with crowns of seeds but their blooming has made me happy. They are great subjects.

Day 247

Day 248

The Icelandic Poppies have been compensation for the demise of my Oriental Poppy bed. 

Day 249

My focus, in more ways than one, has been on flowers and the garden and the deck. 

Day 250

 And now the changing of seasons.

Day 251

Crown Grove - Not always a clear path

Crown Grove
17 x 28 Mixed Media on Artists Canvas
$1075

Some paintings take longer than others. I frankly thought this one would never be finished. And when it was I tried to find out when I started it. Seems as if it sat around on my work space forever. The below photograph was from December 23, 2016 when I was cleaning up the studio.

In the beginning sometime in November 2016?

At that point it was just watercolor. And there were parts I really liked about that but I just could not figure out where I was going with it. To the far right of this photograph above there is another painting I began around the same time and could not, and have not, finished.

I have two new small canvases stretched and figured maybe I should finish what I started before beginning something new. I have begun and finished maybe three paintings with Crown Grove staring at me.

Filling in the aspens with pen and ink trunks and oil stick crowns

An artist friend and I were talking about her painting over old paintings. It is something those who work in acrylic and oil can do easily. But I figured I might be able to rescue this painting with oil sticks. At least I could play around with that. If it failed what was the loss? I stretch my own canvas so when a painting totally fails I pull the old canvas off and stretch new canvas.

I find myself adding more oil stick work to my mixed media paintings. They add texture and depth to a work. I love watercolors especially for skies and backgrounds. They cover a lot of canvas quickly especially when I pour them.

I began using oil stick for foregrounds in my mustang paintings because of the texture and movement they added.

Putting in some grasses

Filling in the foreground

Adding shadows in the distant grove and on the pond

None of the background colors were changed from the original watercolor. The colors appear different because of the addition of the foreground colors and adding white oil stick to the clouds with touches of gray, yellow and rose.

Finished piece with more red in the tops of the aspens

So there is now one less painting sitting on my work space unfinished. Not too sure about the other one. It may just get new canvas.

Week 35 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 238

Began this week with a portrait of the photographer. The clouds, the reflection and the hollyhocks and hummingbirds with the polytunnel behind define this summer. And this summer of photographs. I have been a home body more than normal and so my photographic subjects have been those I can get from the deck or close jaunts. No physical reason. Just busy. If I did not have the goal of posting a photograph a day I might have gone days without taking a photo.

There is something to be said for narrowing the photographic opportunities. It encourages an in depth  exploration of the subjects. A summer of clouds and hollyhocks. And sitting on my deck in the sun.

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Week 243

 And for a change of pace pansies.

Day 244