Foto Art Friday – July 22, 2016

Midnight Garden

Last weekend, I photographed a place I call the Secret Garden that’s part of a local nursery here in New Mexico.  I loved this birdbath overflowing with petunias.  I converted the image that I took to a watercolor painting effect, and kept thinking it reminded me quite a bit of something one could see in the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia (made famous by the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”).  This piece is a tribute to that.  The background is music because it seems like such a lyrical piece.  Paint splotches (Credit: soul poison and on_thin_air) and an abstract background created by me make up the blended layers to this piece.

Midnight Garden

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday – July 15, 2016

I just received some vintage handwriting pieces that I’ve yet to scan into my computer to use in my art.  However, that didn’t stop me from imagining a piece that has some vintage writing in the background.  I found a piece that I had scanned some time ago – a love letter – and immediately felt this was the beginning of this piece.  I used a photograph of some lovely green foliage I took at the San Diego Botanic Garden, as well as one of a waterlily that I took at the same place.  I blurred the foliage image and blended it with the vintage love letter.  I then placed the water lily on top of that, and did some gentle blending.  I didn’t want to do too much, and lose the water lily, but I did want the letter to still be visible.  I added some brushes of vines and decided the piece was finished.  Sometimes, less is more.  Credit: Falln Stock (brushes).

Love Letter

Enjoy!



 

Foto Art Friday – July 8, 2016

There’s been a lot of conversation lately about transparency, or the lack thereof, depending on one’s perspective.  And, as I was looking thru some of the deserted cabin images I took a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that one image of a cabin really spoke to transparency, as it no longer had a door, and I could see right thru it.  I thought that the history of this cabin was, in a way, an open book, and fairly transparent.  The land used to be ranch or farm land, so most likely the people that inhabited this cabin worked the land in one way or another.  So, I thought an open book image that I had would be a good background.  I then notice some of the text of the book page that I had included – “grand blessing of life” – and decided to highlight that phrase. It just somehow seemed appropriate for the history of this cabin.  Credit:  Specialty brushes by soul poison and SS.

Open Book

Enjoy!

 



July 1 – Foto Art Friday

Right now, my life isn’t really all that adventurous, and I find I’m rather missing that.  But, the bird in this image certainly appears to be in the middle of a wonderful adventure, and I imagine his heart is singing with joy because of that.  So, for this piece, I used a piece of vintage sheet music as a background, and layered and blended a couple of images of the sunrise that I shot a few days ago.  I then added the quote from Helen Keller – it’s one of my favorites.

Daring Adventure

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday – Past Lifetime

When I took the image of the deserted cabin, I was struck by how lifetimes change – what life was like when this cabin was called home to a family is vastly different from what I now know as life.  I’ve heard the phrase, “that was a lifetime ago”, and the image that serves as the foundation for this piece brings that to mind.  The handwriting in the background is an old ledger page.  I imagine that those types of ledger records were the norm back in the day this cabin was home.  A subtle background of wood texture also adds to this piece – again, so much was based in wood, back in this lifetime – home, furniture, toys.  People often say times in the past were a “simpler” time.  When I think of the hardships faced on a daily basis by whoever used to call this home, I don’t think they would have used the term “simple” to describe their lives.

Past Lifetime

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - Formation Flight

For this week’s piece, I looked to last weekend for inspiration.  I was visiting friends in the San Diego area, and on one day, we went to walk along the beach.  Unlike what most folks think of as typical southern California weather, the area was experiencing typical “June gloom” weather.  The skies were overcast, which created some moody images.  This piece incorporates 3 images.  A background image is one I took quite some time ago of some wonderful cloud formations we have here at home in New Mexico.  I merged it with an image of a gloomy beach scene of the rough surf, and another of 3 seagulls flying in a natural formation.  Underneath it all was a Citra Solv background and the icing on the cake (so to speak) were various specialty brushes.  Coffee ring brushes were complements of On Thin Air.

Formation Flight

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - The Photographer

 

Welcome to this week’s “Foto Art Friday”.  This weekend, I am lucky enough to be visiting some good friends in San Diego.  I know I will have some great photo opportunities waiting for me, and that made me think about an image that I captured a couple of years ago.  I was at White Sands National Monument, here in New Mexico, and I saw another photographer positioning himself to capture one of the beautiful sunsets that happen there.  I decided to capture him in the creative moment.  As a sort of tribute to the wonderful photo op this weekend will give me, I decided to make that image the focus of this week’s art piece.  I used some vintage handwriting and music text as a background, and then some brushes found in PhotoShop Elements to add some texture and color.  A simple piece filled with the promise of what more there can be.

 

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - Primrose Portrait

Every spring, these beautiful flowers make their appearance in one flower bed in our front yard.  I kept thinking that perhaps we planted them, and therefore, I should know their name!  But, Jeff reminded me that we didn’t plan them – they just appeared one year, and took up residence.  They are so charming, I look forward to them each year.  I created this piece to honor their appearance again this year.  The background is a blend of vintage music, special paint brushes, and a CitraSolve paper.  I added the images and a few extra paint brushes completed the piece.  By the way, the flower is called a Mexican Evening Primrose.

 

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - May 27 - Always Flowers

Always Flowers

For this week’s Foto Art Friday piece, I used an image of a columbine flower from our garden as inspiration.  The flower is just so soft, delicate, and, in its own way, fancy.  Because of that, I chose very fancy handwriting as a part of the background, along with some CitaSolv background paper, merged together.  I then blended in the columbine image, added some special paint brushes by soulpoison, and then an appropriate quote from Henri Matisse.

 

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - Postcard from Spring

 

For this week’s Foto Art Friday piece, I used an image of an iris from our front yard garden that I took earlier this week.  I decided to go with a more traditional collage approach rather than using the blending technique I’ve been using lately.  I’m still using some vintage papers – handwriting and music, and the top part of a vintage post card!  I added a piece of the CitraSolv background, various brushes in PhotoShop Elements, and this is the result!  I chose fancier handwriting to match the fanciness of the bloom – likewise with the post card’s font!  I like the soft feel to this piece.

 

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - May 13, 2016

 

Memories

 

I'm calling this piece "Memories" because from time to time it's good to just sit back and remember where we've come from, those that we've loved, hated, or even felt indifferent to, places we've been, just to appreciate how far we've come.  Thinking back also helps us to review what we've done and how (perhaps) we could do better in the future.  It's not about regrets, but about learning more about ourselves, so that we can better live our present and look forward with excitement to our future.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 



Digital Photo Art – Doors

I played around with the theme of “doors” for this series of digital photo art pieces.  I truly love playing with combining my photography and collage in this manner – come take a look!

Guardian of the Keys

This piece has a cemetery door and angel from the Cemetery at Ricoleta as its focal points.  Ricoleta is an amazing place – almost like a small city that happens to also be a cemetery.  Eva Peron – Evita – is buried there in her family’s mausoleum.  The angel is one of my favorites from the cemetery, as she seems to be so full of sorrow, it practically oozes from her.  The foundation of this piece, as is the case with all of these pieces, is background pages I’ve created using CitraSolv and magazine pages.  I then blended some handwriting pages into that, added my door and angel images and finished off the piece with specialty brushes in Photoshop Elements from Falln Stock.

Laundry Day on the Balcony

When we were in Palermo, Italy, last fall, it seemed to be laundry day – many of the balconies had the residents’ laundry out to dry on their balconies.  This balcony seem particularly photogenic, and is one of my favorites from that day.  Can’t you almost feel the soft breeze drying the clothes?  This piece, again, has a CitraSolve background as its foundation, with special brushes added from Photoshop Elements. 

Palermo Church Door

I took this image thru the window of our tour bus while we were in Palermo, and at the time, I worried that glare from the window would wreck the image.  However, I really liked the way the glare caused a sort of reflection that added a nice bit of texture to the image.  For this piece, I blended my CitraSolv background with some vintage sheet music.  I purposefully selected the background with some red tones in it to pick up on the handles of the church doors, and then added specialty brushes by soul poison and ss to pick up on that reddish tone and the underlying grey tones of the bricks in the image.  Coffeering brushes by on thin air complete the piece.

Southwestern Keys

The inspiration for this piece lay closer to home – in the small town of Gallisteo, New Mexico, not far from where we live.  This door, or gate, leads to someone’s yard, and just seemed like a great fit for my “door” theme.  This time, I blended vintage handwriting with a CitraSolv background and added special brushes by jh and Falln Stock in Photoshop Elements to finish out the piece.

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - Farmer's Daughter

This week had us driving thru lots of farmland in the Midwest and Plains states as we headed home from our 2 month journey.  I was struck by how wonderful some of the older barns and farm houses looked, and began shooting them from the passenger seat in our RV.  This week’s piece is a tribute to all the farmers in our country who provide much of the food that we put on our tables.  And, of course, many of those farmers had daughters, so the connection was inevitable!  This piece has some Citra Solv background as the foundation with several different pieces of vintage writing blended into it.  I added an image of a farmhouse that I enhanced in Photoshop Elements, and the lovely vintage photo of a sweet young lady (who happens to be my Mom when she was in her late teens, I believe!).  Added to all of this are some specialty brushes in Photoshop to finish off the piece. 

Enjoy!



Silent Sentry

 

A good part of this week was spent getting warranty work done on our RV at the manufacturer’s site.  Altho I’m not an engineer by nature or former trade, that was Jeff’s forte, and he was keeping as close a watch on what was being done as was possible.  As for me, I was just in the background, silent.  I was reminded of an image of a bird that I took on our travels in Florida, and thought that would make a good focal point for this image.  It started with a vintage music text blended with a CitraSolv background I created some time ago.  I added to that specialty brushes by On Thin Air and more traditional brushes available in Photoshop Elements 14.  Finally, I added a gradient effect around the outer edges of the piece.  I’d never played with gradients, and I did like the overall effect that it added to this piece.  As for me, this week, like this bird, I was a silent sentry.

 

Enjoy.



In Time, I Remember

This contribution to Foto Art Friday has, as its focal point, an image of a deserted house that I took in Pennsylvania.  When I looked at it, I just thought of all the memories that it held of past lives.  There are those times when I would see something, and couldn’t immediately remember what about it reminded me of something in my childhood.  In time, tho, it would come back to me, and I would remember.  This piece has that feeling as its inspiration.  The foundation of this piece begins with some vintage handwriting, followed by a CitraSolv background that I created which had this great faint image of a woman on it.  I then added my house image, some specialty brushes and the text.  I hope you enjoy it.

In Time I Remember



Foto Art Friday - Captain’s Log

For this week’s Foto Art Friday piece, I chose to focus on an image I took looking out of one of the round windows I passed climbing up the Key West Lighthouse.  It reminded me of someone watching for a sea captain to return from a long journey, or what the sea captain imagined his lady love to be doing.  Therefore, I blended some vintage handwriting with a CitraSolve background, then added in my lighthouse window view, cropped a bit, playing with the opacity of that image so that some handwriting showed thru the image.  Finally, I added in some specialty brushes, of coffee rings (by On Thin Air) and birds (by Wings of a Hero), both in blue to match the overall color tone of the piece.

Captain’s Log

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday – Goin’ Home

I decided to create a challenge for myself creatively.  I will be making a piece of digital photo art (or collage) every Friday, starting this past Friday, March 25!  The background of the piece is a vintage postcard.  I merged a photo that I took of a misty morning in Big Cypress, added a photo I took of a deserted building while driving thru Texas, and pulled an image of an older couple from some CitraSolv background I have.  It just sort of reminds me of going home, even if it’s just in our memories.

 Goin’ Home

Enjoy!



Digital Photo Art – Cadiz, Spain

There was lots of photographic inspiration in Cadiz, Spain, and I’ve taken advantage of it to create these digital photo art pieces.  They help to better capture the spirit of this lovely place…..

  Peaceful Morn

 

As we walked along the seawall surrounding, there were several small boats anchored close to the beach.  To accent the peaceful feeling of the image of this little dingy, I used some background paper I made (and then scanned into my PC) using CitraSolv and National Geographic magazine pages, and then used some bird brushes to complement the feel of this piece.

Sunday Afternoon in the Park

Along one part of the seawall, there’s a lovely city park.  It had such a light, airy feel to it, I decided to use a handwriting sampler as the background, and played with the opacity of my image to allow some of the handwriting to show thru.  I then added some flourish brushes to finish off the springtime feel.

The Banyan Tree

At a different part of the same city park, there were some beautiful banyan trees.  I found the curvature of the branches amazing and thought the handwriting of the vintage postcard was a good match for the tree, both because of the flowing nature of the handwriting and branches, and due to the age of both.  Various brushes were used to add more texture to the piece. 

View from Yesterday

There was an old castle along the seawall that looked out onto the cove where the small boats were anchored.  Altho the boats certainly weren’t old, they did sort of feel like they were from a time gone by.  As I stood looking out the window of the castle, I felt like it was a view from yesterday; hence, the name of this piece.  Interestingly, the background I used in this piece was an image of the rock wall of the Coliseum in Rome.

Waiting

The focus of this piece is another of the small boats in the cove.  This one, however, was on shore.  As I was searching for a background for this digital art piece, I came across another CitraSolv background piece I made, this one jumped out at me as being perfect for the piece.  The very faint image of a woman looking out, coupled with the vintage postcard spoke to me of someone waiting for someone to return to her.  He’s written, but she’s lonely, and the boat symbolizes her feelings of emptiness.

Enjoy!

 



Digital Photo Art – Alicante, Spain

Here are some pieces of digital photo art that I created based on images I shot while we were in Alicante, Spain, this past fall.  These images really just seemed to have a life outside of being photographic images, and so, they became part of this new art technique I’ve begun playing with.

                                                  The View                                               

We were wandering around an ancient castle up high on a bluff over the city, and this was the view from one of the walkways.  I wonder if whoever lived there truly appreciated the magnificent scenery that was at their beck and call…..or if they were too concerned with day to day life to notice.  We are so lucky to be living in the time we are, when we have the opportunity to appreciate this wonderful, yet simple slices of life.

Stairway

This stairway leads to……..where?  I don’t know the answer, and that’s part of what is so intriguing to me about the image that’s the focus of this piece.  It’s rather like the paths that we choose in life.  They may look interesting or like they lead to an adventure, but we don’t really know until we follow them. We choose them for what they seem to promise, and then make the best of what the reality turns out to be.

See the Light

I like the focal point of this piece – the image of the window with the light shining into a darkened interior.  It speaks to me of how promise always seems to be shining in my life.  It beckons us to believe in it and strive for it.  The red undertones remind me of energy – the energy that we feel when we first discover the promise of something new….an idea, a new love, a new chapter in our life.

Explore

The final piece of this series speaks to the wonder of exploration.  What lies beyond the doorway?  I always tend to think in the positive, so I imagine it to be a grand adventure of some sort.  I purposely chose the fancy script handwriting in the piece to offset the hardness of the stones in both the image and the background.  If you look very closely in the image, you just may be able to see strings of butterflies sprinkled throughout the piece.  They add a piece of lightness, again, focusing on the wonder of a new grand adventure!

Enjoy!

 

 



Digital Photo Art – St. Paul de Vence

I warn you up front.  This will be a long post, as there are quite a few new digital photo art pieces to share with you!  The images were taken in my favorite port of call on our recent Mediterranean/Transatlantic cruise – a small medieval French village, turned artist community, St. Paul de Vence.  Let’s take a look at some art from this artful place –

Charm

I’m not certain if this was a bed & breakfast or a café, but whatever it is, it certainly reeks with charm!  This piece, used some background paper I created and specialty branches to highlight the photo image.

France Welcomes You

Specialty brushes that consist of coffee rings, wine splashes, and some special background paper I created and France-related collage background set off this image of a small square in the village with a drinking fountain in the front of it and inns in the back.  A warm and inviting welcome.

Home

After a long trip, with postcards sent, it’s so good to see your own front door welcoming you home.  That’s what this image conveyed to me, and the piece is meant to reflect that feeling.

Missing You

This piece is made up of several layers – my own abstract background paper, some ledger paper, a vintage love letter, and an intimate scene in the village.  Specialty brushes finish off the piece.

Open for Business

There were many shops in this charming village, and this was one.  I think the shop was on the first floor – perhaps the owner’s living quarters above? The abstract background, vintage lettering and some spots of color to accent the red in the bushes of the image finish off this piece with a gentle feel.

Open your Mind

I loved this simple image of the pot of red geraniums sitting on the outside window sill.  I contrasted the simplicity of the image with a rather complex background.  Music and lettering complement the abstract CitraSolv background paper.  Lettering and the specialty brushes round out the piece.

Postcard from France

This tapas café just begged to be the type of place that one would certainly write a postcard about!  Therefore, I had to include one in this piece.  I also included some vintage sheet music because one can just feel the soft music emitting from the inside of this café.  Red brush splotches serve to accent the red bushes and seat covers.

Wander

There were so many picturesque areas of this village, I couldn’t begin to select a favorite.  This image sums up the wonder of just wandering around. I decided to go with similar backgrounds to emphasize the warmth of the village.  The text “wander” speaks to what one has to do to truly appreciate all the charms of this village.

Enjoy!