Update?

I hope to get back soon to posting on this forsaken blog!

Coral Rose

This rose image began as a scanned silk flower and went through many adjustments and modifications within digital tools. It is charming at small print sizes, and breathtaking at larger sizes and framed with a black 4" wooden frame.

Artistic/Technical notes: Any digital artist who deals with smaller objects such as flowers and leaves should experiment with what a scanner can capture. The images require additional digital editing, but are brilliant in their high lighting and shallow depth of field.

(Click here or on the image for a larger view or to consider a print or download purchase.)

Treman Flour Mill

This rendered image presents a flower mill from two centuries ago. The foliage surrounding the falls which once drove a water wheel to run the mill can almost be seen through the tiny blue/green window at the back of the picture.

Artistic/Technical notes: The image of the mill was shot under very low-light conditions, and rendered in Photoshop to reveal the detail in the shadows, and also to tone down the highlights. In addition, many color and contrast modifications were made to the image.

The primary value in this image is as a historical reference, but as an artistic image it hangs on the wall very nicely.

(Click here or on the image for a larger view or to consider a print or download purchase.)

Winter Fence

This is a digital painting of an old fence, using digital watercolor brushes.  The reference image was a photograph of this fence in winter.

Artistic/Technical notes: Using digital brushes with a digital tablet (tablet surface and a stylus) is a process that takes significant self-education and practice.  Almost immediately the brush can begin laying down over-saturated, darker than desired strokes.  This is not unlike using physical watercolors, and yields a difficult but pleasantly familiar environment for this medium.

A painting like this can take several long days, counting restarts.  But the results are very pleasing.

(Click here or on the image for a larger view or to consider a print or download purchase.)

Bright Forest

This image of a forest and a lone tree in the foreground characterizes a view of life: "we the individual - like this tree - stand alone in birth, life and death." But look again and you'll see that behind and all around us is a forest of our peers, supporting us, empathizing with us.

Artistic/Technical notes: This image was a very late fall digital photograph from some distance with a telephoto lens.  I took many shots of this setting, and chose this one to "age" with sepia tone, film grain and deep-background texture.  At full size the image has a distinct archival look, as from early photography.

As hoped for, this printed image displays well in smaller sizes, and in larger sizes such as 19"x13," as I have in my home.

(Click here or on the image for a larger view or to consider a print or download purchase.)

The Graffitti Tree

This accommodating tree, displaying lovers' and friends' initials from the past and perhaps far into the future, lives on in spite of the abuse of the initial carvers.

Artistic/Technical notes: the digital camera technique of high-dynamic-range (HDR) was used with this subject to bring the tree and its carvings out of the shadows, while keeping the sunlight through the leaves compelling but controlled.

Significant work was done in Photoshop to bring the color and contrast into proper alignment.

(Click here or on the image for a larger view or to consider a print or download purchase.)

To Those Who Shall Sit Here . . .

This plaque, on a bench at the highest elevation of Cornell University's Plantations, overlooks a broad and peaceful valley stretching into the misty distance.  The inscription, from 1892, is attributed to Andrew Dickson White, co-founder of Cornell, and his wife Helen Magill White.

I often sit on this bench, even in winter, and reflect on how sweet, compassionate and eternal the words are. In my view there is nothing else as powerful as this statement about the universality of human experience, in all the recorded quotes of all time.

Artistic/Technical notes: In this image I added background texture to emphasize the plaque. I also have the same image without the textured background.  This was a difficult piece, precisely because of its emotional power.  I wanted to display the message, but also show the bench to give a sense of the setting for these words.  I continue to work on this one with a variety of different approaches.
(Click here or on the image for a larger view or to consider a print or download purchase.)