Light is such a wonderful thing. It allows the photographer to change change the mood at a stroke. However, Photoshop also allows this and when the two are combined then the opportunities are endless.
So I give you two views of Borth one sunny early spring morning. Can’t get my head around this reality thing.
I believe technically when you create an image with oil pastels then it is classed as a painting as opposed to a drawing. So this morning I was at my art class and created this portrait. The tryptic shows the development over the the hour or so – although it must be said that the photos don’t do the painting any justice – they do provide a record of hour it was created.
It is a very long time since got my hands dirty with my oil pastels and I have to say I really enjoyed the experience. It goes without saying I would now change things but that really isn’t the point. This is something I created in a finite amount of time and as such should stand on its own merit. If I wish to improve on the work then I should make another version – this time with no time limit…perhaps I might.
Dry the Rain
Not too long ago I was a wildlife photographer and the one golden rule was …it must be real… There must be no faking – colour balance and saturation were about the only things you could change. As I progressed I started to realise that this was in the end totally defeating because you can never really answer the question of what is real.
Of course in the world of photoshop things can be moved around very easily in an image and wildlife photography is meant be capturing the real world os placing a creature in the image that just wasn’t there is a bit naughty – but what if you acknowledge the fact that an image has been manipulated what then?
One of my favourite wild life photographers is Nick Brandt yet all of his images are manipulated and don’t really reflect reality if you had stood where Brandt had stood to capture the image. For a start they are in black and white – possibly the biggest manipulation from reality you can get unless you suffer from some form of vision impairment.
I honestly don’t know this rambling blog is going other than to say reality is not all it is cracked up to be when creating an image. All artists distort reality to their own vision and I think that I am so much happier not longer sticking to the rules….it is also a lot lot cheaper!
Promise of a nice day – new car what better than to go for a day out at the coast. It turned out that the weather was even better than expected and we had a great time walking along the beach at Borth in Wales. Very good for the soul.
I started a new short course at my local art centre the other week and something strange seems to have happened – I’m moving away from figurative to the more abstract…I wonder where that came from?
From time to time I stop up late and watch the weekly political show This Week. Last night was the first time I saw the wonderful political operator in the flesh – Miss Molly, Andrew Neil’s dog. From searching the internet it would seem that she make guest appearances from time to time and if last night performance was a guide to past experiences she would seem to sum what much of the country was thinking. Whilst three politicos argued about this or that Molly show not the slightest interest and every time she was in the shot she totally destroyed the point being made. She was a perfect metaphor for the interest the majority of people in Britain have in politics – not a jot.
So in the forthcoming election should you decide to vote – few will – when you have to make a decision ask yourself – ‘…what would Molly do?…’ It is probably the best advice you’ll ever get on the state of British politics.
Every now and then one find something on the internet that is very very special. The discovery of this film is one of those times for me. I remember seeing this as a young boy in the 1960’s and it has stayed with me since then. This also explains, in some small way, why I am always moved by the work of John Piper. Of course for most people this will mean nothing to them but to me it is very important
I had a really enjoyable time yesterday watching the latest instalment of Thor. The added element in all this that I actually visited the set of the grand finale at Greenwich in December 2012 – although I didn’t know it was for the film at the time.
Strolling around the garden this afternoon it felt that spring was here…however you have to remind yourself that it is still February and we can still have a cold snap…just like last year. Nevertheless it is nice to have some warm sun on one’s back
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