This posterized photo was taken in the living room of friends who have an eclectic and interesting art collection. It was of a small antique painting of a copse of trees, framed under glass. The glass, in particular over the darker areas of the painting, reflected the bright side window and other parts of the room. The framed and matted artwork appearing in the tops of the trees are reflected from across the room, and set up a wonderful juxtaposition of form and meaning on several satisfying levels.

A note about the photographs:

The steps were photographed with my old iPhone4, which  pumped up the colors and shifted them towards blue. The finished work was scanned directly, so it has the more acurate colors.

I used a variety of pastel brands both hard and soft, but the big deep red is one that I made. 

"Approaching Light  III"

Taken on a beautiful clear blue sky day, this is one of an ongoing series of headlights and taillights. It's always a  challenge to keep myself out of all the reflections and refractions. Accepted for exhibition. It won an Award of Excellence in a large juried show in Washington DC, juried by Christopher With.

Subject: Mercedes SL 500  headlight
Camera: iPhone 4S
Apps: a touch of Percolator, 
a bit of  photoshop

Oil Sketch in
Green and Pink

Painted in virtual oil paint
with ArtRage on the iPad.

ArtRage has been around now for several years, and is a very strong multiple media simulation program. I especially like the oil paint. The iPad version is an excellent adaptation, although it is still very low resolution.

Click on each picture for full size version

"Deep Pink"

This image or an ornamental cabbage makes me think of clamshells and ruffles and  confections, all at once. This was also the model for a quick sketch demo in my Pastel Techniques class

We spent last weekend in Philadelphia, immersed in art.
First, many happy hours in the new Barnes Collection Museum, an immense and ecclectic collection. Piles of Renoirs and Matisses that I'd never seen before, piled three or four deep. On top of each pile was an old steel utility object - fancy antique door hinges, kitchen implements, mechanical ringers, mystery items.

The next day, many more hours in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art's magnificent building, gazing at their wonderful collection of paintings and sculptures. In the side street next to the PAFA we found a "crashed" WWII warplane that had been re-purposed as a greenhouse as an art project.

These are three interpretations from a small section of the fusilage.

Winter Cabbage Leaves,
Ruffles and Flourishes

I have binders of cabbages!

Truly, there are so many cabbage leaf pictures in my files that I could post new ones every day this month. And if I run out of options, there is a constantly changing progression of new photo compositions growing on the deck, and all over the neighborhood.

Winter Cabbage
 01-10-13

The decorative cabbages provide brilliant color and lush form all winter long, especially if the winter is mild. No more bare, gray winter gardens! This one is quite striking printed at very large size.

Camera: iPhone 4S
App: camera 360

"Lobos Rock Sprite"

Subject: a rock at Pt Lobos on the California coastline. Accepted for exhibition.

Camera: iPhone 4S

No filters or special effects, some color and value adjustment in Photoshop. 

I like viewers to have a say in some of my artistic decisions, to be an active part of the creative process.  So a very big "Thank you" to all the participating viewers who chose the winning photos from the dozens of candidates. These winners were transformed into the final panels, then printed, framed and installed in the Quilt Matrix located at the Hill Center on Capitol Hill.

Of course the project took longer to finish than anticipated, but I am very pleased by both the process and the outcome. It was quite interesting to see which images gathered the most votes - not always the ones I would have expected. My favorite transformed panel was always the one I had just finished, so the final few panels are my final favorites.

This project was also a prototype for future collaborative art projects. I've been working with the concept of evolution for many years now, how images can morph into other images, or start whole families with generations and siblings and cousins. In the past I always had to provide the forces that transformed the images, as well as determine which would surrive to the next generation. With the internet, this survival-of-the-fittest decision can be crowd-sourced, providing a more natural force to work with. This project proved the concept to be viable.

So again, many thanks to you all. I have many ideas for future projects, and hope you will participate again.