More travel photos

After a spate of photography developing classes, I am editing and printing my photos. Which means I get to search through the photos I’ve taken over they years. In the past, I took most pictures when I lived in London or I was travelling. I wanted to record what was new to me. I was not very diligent about developing the photos so I have a rich trove of images to work from. It is doubly nice because I get to relive all of those moments.

This is a photo from lunch at Dinner, a wonderful restaurant in London. For dessert they dramatically make ice cream table side with dry ice.

The Ice Cream at Dinner

AFTER THE PARTY

In the last two years all of my photos were taken with my iPhone. This is because of the vast improvements in the iPhone cameras and my need to stay up to date with all the technology for the iPhone photographer classes that I teach.

Yet this fall, after my partner’s 65th birthday, I looked at the beautiful light and the deflating blue and white balloons and I went into the house to get one of my cameras. I am not sure why, but perhaps I am more mindful when I am concentrating on adjusting the variables.

What was certain was that my life was changing for reasons beyond pandemic and politics. I looked at sinking balloons on an early autumn afternoon and saw bravado.

After the Party

A BUSY WEEK & A SECOND KIND OF PORTRAIT

It has been the sort of busy week I haven’t had much during the pandemic. During the last few days I have been using my free time to edit some of my old pictures for my printing class. I am really enjoying these moments. This was taken on a trip to London five years ago (already!). My daughter found this flowered coat. It was like she found an old friend. And in fact she had. She had an almost identical coat when she was four and five years old. When she first saw that one she had the same reaction! She didn’t remember the first coat, but something inside of her did!

Looking Up

I am definitely in a drawing mood this month, a counterbalance to what feels like a photography dominance in March. I was inspired by a graphic in a magazine to do a left facing silhouette of a face with blocks of color, but it developed, as things do, with increased detail. I like when the drawing starts developing a direction of its own even while working towards my original idea to create a portrait in profile using shapes and the resulting negative space. The portrait was drawn from a snapshot of my daughter.

Looking Up

My Yellow Willow

We planted this tree in honour of my partner’s 65th birthday last September. It is in a wet spot in the yard and doing very well. I was surprised to see it turn bright yellow when the sap started running. Now it has some of the whip-like branches I think about with willows and neon green leaves. I couldn’t resist drawing it again.

Yellow Willow in Spring

Plein air drawing at NEW SEABURY

I made a friend on zoom over the winter and I met her last week in person at New Seabury. She was up for a couple of weeks vacation and we got together for plein air drawing on our iPads. I loved meeting her in real life, but still felt I knew her from the series of classes I have given to her and her granddaughter. It was COLD outside and we ended up at the clubhouse looking over the golf course. By then we were running out of time, but I made a good sketch. I finished at home over the weekend, the spring colors a good balance to my black and white photography workshop (pictures to follow over the next couple of days).

Early Spring at New Seabury

WORKING ON BLACK & WHITE

Today I am very excited to start a three day workshop “Seeing in Black & White” with NYC Photographer Phil Penman. I have long dabbled in black and white, either converting color photos or taking pictures in black and white with a camera app. When converting, I usually choose pictures where the color is distracting or does not contribute to the feeling of the images. In the past I have chosen to shoot in black and white as a creative challenge, to encourage me to look at the world in a different way.

I am happy with some of my results but want to be more consistent and make stronger images. I have a wonderful new tool, a Leica Q2 Monochrom, and I want to learn to use it use it more intuitively. So far that has been a fun challenge! I am so happy to embark on this adventure in seeing!

Turning in a New Direction!

OUT MY BEDROOM WINDOW

I have a series of pictures drawn on my iPhone of the view outside my bedroom window. I draw them when I wake up early and I don’t want to get up or listen to the news. They are drawn with my finger and are simple sketches of the light and season.

March 21 at Dawn

WHEN WE TRAVELED

My computer files had become a jumble so I took some time over the past year to reorganise them. It has been a long process and I have worked on it but by bit. It is a tedious activity, and yet has rewards. In finding and filing my pictures, I got to look back and remember trips, other places I’ve lived, friends, family, events. This is a picture from my trip to Tokyo with my son. I was amused by the juxtaposition of the frying pan and the cook!

The Happy Cook

More Waiting

I loved the pose at figured drawing a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been working on this digital mixed media piece since then. It is mixed media because her clothing and floors are collaged in. On their own they are photos I took. I take pictures of fabrics I like, wallpapers, tiles, all sorts of background and clothing patterns and textures to use in my paintings.

She Was Stood Up, a second version.

Today's walk ON Long Beach

Today was a four collie walk, so just the IPhone joined us. My partner and I were walking our friend’s two collies along with our two. Not a day for cameras, but a good day for iPhone Photography, videos of dogs playing, photos of dogs in action. And while they are in action, there is time to enjoy the scenery AND their hijinx while we make some more serious pictures. The biggest advantage of the iPhone at this time is that it is sturdy and quick to store away in a pocket. Also it is really to use and to experiment with. For me, I enjoy trying different camera apps, and later at home, all types of editing.

A Beautiful Present of a Day

RediscoverIes

In organising my photos on my computer, I found many that I loved but my editing of the RAW file did not find the image I had in my mind. I am now taking a class with the Master Printer Bob Korn, and even after the first session I have found that I am much closer to seeing the results I imagined. Here is an old favourite from a trip to Spain in 2016!

View from My Hotel Window, Priego de Cordoba

FOG & WAVES & DOGS

Our walk was transformed yesterday by fog. Everything was immediately different. The air was filled with the sound of crashing waves and the calls of gulls and crows. We were held close by the surrounding whiteness, the beach and the dunes dissolving in the distance. What was intended to be a short walk before the rain, turned into an adventure when the rain didn’t come. The collies found a ball and we played fetch along the wave lines. They waded in and the puppy felt the power of the ocean for the first time as a wave knocked her over. We met our boxer friends and followed the dune paths, our view of the ocean obscured. We were explorers in a most familiar place rendered unfamiliar and new.

Watching the Waves Roll In

On the Watch

ORCHIDS IN THE STUDIO

The windows in my studio, now one year old, seem to be perfect of orchids. They just bloom and bloom. My next photography project will have something to do with them, as they have been a reliable source of delight this last year. I have been taking the same series of photos in black and white and then in color. Here is a peek at one of these photos.

Orchids in black and white.

Figure Drawing session

I love attending figure drawing sessions. I have started to work in black and white, adding color in later versions. This way I can focus more on the values and depth. It helps me begin to see better when I am taking black and white photographs too.

Figure Drawing Session, March 5, 2021

WHAT I CAN’t do

What I can’t do is post a new picture every day. I am not that sort of artist. I work every day. Some days I have something to show for it. Some days I don’t. Right now I am working on several projects at once.

Today’s picture is a still life I took in the early fall. Just when we start to think about the coming hibernation of winter, I start dreaming up my winter projects to keep me busy in the short dark days ahead.

We are on the other side of that now. On the Cape we are always behind when it comes to spring. Snowdrops are up, but today’s temperature with the windchill — and there is a lot of wind — is 19°F.

I am still nestled in and germinating my plans for spring. I have two photographic series in the works and am very curious about how they will turn out.

And I am drawing a lot. Quick sketches, but mostly long form detailed landscapes and portraits and I love being able to take my time.

Nestled Together. Shot with my iPhone.

Little iPhone Drawings

Even after a dozen years, it still surprises me that I can draw on my iPhone. The app I use now is called Pocket. It is the iPhone version of Procreate, the drawing app I use on my iPad. It is easy to use and very powerful. Pocket can do most things that Procreate can, including making animations! What I like it best for is making sketches when I am out and about. My ‘Look Ahead” series was made entirely on the iPhone, with renderings full of detail and nuance. It excels at sketches. This is yesterday’s sketch of our new willow tree. We planted it last fall to sop up the water in a boggy hollow behind our house. It has turned bright yellow in the spring, the color seems exaggerated, but it isn’t really.

The Yellow Willow and a Blue Puddle

ONE TREE, TWO VIEWS

I often draw from my photographs. This drawing is from a black and white photo that I took this week. It is one of my favorite views, the little squarish tree silhouetted against the sky. The tree is hunkered down, alone against the elements. The colors and moods of the sky and grass evolve around it. Here it is on an unseasonably spring like day soaking in the light and warmth.

Long Beach on a Warm March Day

My reference photo.

A SUGGESTION OF SPRING

Spring is very slow to arrive on Cape Cod. Yesterday there were clearly some signs: snowdrops, a dandelion, daffodils starting to push through the leaves, the moss starting to brighten, and the light freshening the whole landscape.

The Suggestion of Spring

A COAT OF MANY COLORS

I like drawing people. It is a meditative practice that helps me see my subject clearly. After the first marks are made, I am so busy looking and drawing that other thoughts fade away. I draw on my iPad and take a traditional approach, making a sketch of the image and building up the detail just as if I were drawing on paper. I prefer drawing from life, but in the last year I am content using a photo or attending a session on Zoom.

This image comes from a project I developed for a woman and her 11 year old granddaughter. We have spent the winter exploring drawing on the iPad via Zoom. Both of them are talented artists already and want to explore this new media together. In this project we started with a sketch and are currently creating a variety of different finished images from it. My student provided the original photo. “A Coat of Many Colors” is my first variation.

A Coat of Many Colors