Category: Photo Art

A Work In Crisis

I’m feeling the cold this winter.

My studio is very cold, so I haven’t been doing much painting.

But, I am slowly painting second layers over a largish canvas, constructing an abstract landscapey work … as a WIP, it isn’t fit for viewing yet.

For fun, I took some close-ups of portions of the canvas and made them into a digital photo collage … the subject is “from the easel”, but the result is “from the computer”.

“Fragments Of A Work In Crisis”

(digital photo collage of details of an oil painting work possibly in progress)

THE EXHIBITION THAT WAS

Opening Day – The A.Fox Collective – Amelia, Joy, and Ant.

You know, it takes a lot less time to take down an art exhibition than it does to hang one.

The Slow Hanging


We sold a few pieces, more than enough to cover our direct expenses.
But was there an overall profit?
No, nothing like it.
Of course the experience could be classed as a “profit” even though no money changed hands.
The knowledge that I have sold more paintings in my lifetime than Van Gogh managed has to be priceless!

Gone

We took our time over the deconstruction.
We could have driven there in the morning, taken it down, and driven back that evening, but somehow the overnight stay seemed the better option.

Really Gone

Mind you, it was a fairly expensive option.
The hotel room was comfortable and fairly well appointed, but the price was a bit steep for a room in a small country town.
Yes, the room tariff was less than we paid on our last stay in Sydney, but not all that much less.
In Sydney we stayed on the top floor of a tall hotel in the centre of the city, where we had stunning views of high-rises, sunsets, and the road heading to the harbour.
In our small country town hotel, we were up one flight of stairs with a walkway balcony outside our window and a view of the drive through bottle department.
Still, the bed was comfortable, the food in the dining room was OK (if not wonderful), and the wine was great.

The start-of-winter journey there and back was picturesque, through country we love, tinged the faintest of greens by the breaking of the drought.
The wrapped paintings in the back of the wagon muted road noise and any rattles, and the roads were quiet.

The Skies of Winter
Way Home Tree

It was a good exhibition we are told.
It was fun to set up.
It was a buzz to listen to the praise at the opening.

5 paintings – 3 (centre ones) sold

But … I think I have come to the conclusion that my paintings might be a bit – well … boring.
I’ll work on a new direction for inspiration … perhaps I’ll look back to the 1980s when it almost (almost) felt like I had something.

Me and Two of My Works


But for now now, two months after the hanging,
the A.Fox Collective “Abstracted Landscapes” has left the building. 

The Exhibition That Was

Photographic Special Defects

For many years – From about 1969 until the mid 1990s I processed all my own black and white photos.
I toyed with colour processing and printing, but black and white was my passion.
I loved my Pan F and FP4.
I carried my Pentax cameras everywhere.
Occasionally I borrowed a large format camera (including, a couple times, a very nice heavy Linhof plate camera), but essentially I was a 35mm man.
I had access to a real darkroom equipped with a Leitz enlarger.

Joy in the Early 70s

Ah – those were the days!

Now I have no access to a darkroom, and I confess that I lack the spirit and will to set one up.
But nowadays, I have digital photography to amuse me.
I have an iPhone SE, which has a pretty good camera, a Pentax DSLR, and a Sony a6000 mirrorless (a lovely digital camera) … and an iMac computer to play upon.

Digital Sunflower

No, it isn’t the same as the good old film days but it keeps me happy, and some of the images are really very good.
The shooting limitation of film is gone – a two headed coin. With the ability to shoot hundreds of shots in any session we can get a bit careless, but at the same time good old aunty serendipity can present us with one or two sensational shots from all those many.

Digital Landscape

And the processing is so simple.
There are many apps and the like that let a fella like me do all the tweaking and bending and distorting that I would have once upon a time done with double exposures, maskings, chemicals, solarising, and all that fun jazz.

On Reflection, Joy is in Two Minds

Yes, it is cheating. Yes, back in the 70s I would have sneered. But now, I’m a happy wee grey haired digital photoist … having fun with a camera, computer, and cup of tea close at hand.

He’s cracked I tell you!

Who’d have thunk it?

The Lights of the City

This is a little experiment in duotone digital photography.
Image taken yesterday on North Terrace Adelaide,
from the passenger seat of our Skoda using my iPhone via the Filmborn App set to emulate PanF.
Processed at home whilst consuming Yorkshire Gold tea bag tea – currently on sale in our local Foodland Supermarket.

(Don’t say that I don’t supply the details of my artworks! 😉 )

I Can Almost See The Lights of the City