Geometric Design

These three designes were the product of a doodle session.  My wife is wanting to redo our bedroom and I thought why not do the art work myself rather than paying lots of dollars to have someone else do it.  One of the designs I have started to digitally paint with the colors (or close to the colors) we will be doing our bedroom in.  It has been fun so far.  I will continue to share as the pieces continue to evolve.

 

Swatch of black velvet and an old fashioned coke bottle

I am learning a little more about photography and some of the tricks of the trade.  I shot about 135 photos of these flowers.  I have learned that the best light for shooting florals is natural light.  The same could be said of any subject, natural light is the best.  However, when I shot these photos, I was in my basement at about 8 pm and there was no natural light available.  Instead, I had the light in another part of the room on, a back drop of black velvet and an old fashioned coke bottle to work with.  Below are two of the results of that photo shoot.

Transformed children's board book

This past week I decided to try a new project for the anniversary of my son Tucker and daughter-in-law, Michelle.   I bought an old children's board book from a second hand store and re-purposed it into this little book for them as they celebrate their 3rd anniversary.  The photos are shots I took and I tried my hand at writing the text as well.  I learned a lot during the process and will do things a little differently next time around.  I think, even with all its flaws, it has a charm and appeal to it.  I get a sense of it being an old and well loved book that has been handled a great deal.

Stacked Flower #1

This was my first attempt of  "stacking" a photograph.  I used four different sizes of the same shot to make this stack. I made the largest photo black and white.  For the 2nd layer, I added in a little color.  The 3rd layer has more color added.  The center of the stack is the original photograph.  It creates an interesting affect.  I want to continue playing with this process using other subjects.

Swimmer's Collage

This collage is of my grandson.  He loves the water, nothing about water scares him.  I painted the canvas with my interpretation of water.  I printed the photographs on tracing paper and then cut the larger two out with scissors (I didn't have an exacto knife). I glued them on the canvas with spray adhesive. To finish this piece I sprayed a matte finishing coat over the entire canvas and framed it with a simple black frame.  I especially love the affect of the cut out images.  He seems to be coming out of the water.

I snapped this shot at Busua Beach in Ghana Africa without realizing the story that was captured by the image. It has been a little over a year since we were on the continent of Africa and this photograph still moves me. I am currently, and have been for a year, working on a book that incorporates several of my photographs and my journal entries from our trip to Ghana. Hopefully I will find the time and the inspiration to complete it this year.

This is a photo collage I did for my granddaughter's 4th birthday this year. I used canvas, paint, fabric, one of my favorite photos of her and scrapebooking stickers. I didn't know if she would appreciate it, but when my wife dropped by to see our daughter and the kids, Eden grabbed her and said "Grandma, come see my Eden", and pulled her to the piano to see the picture placed there. I think she likes it.