Painting During my Rehab

 These paintings, with the exception of the second, were done over the last three months while I was convalescing from my hip fracture and surgery. (The second was done earlier in the year but I combined it with the others to compare how my painting style and ability has changed or matured over the last year or so). The first three were done from photographs I took while in Stockholm, Sweden last March. The fourth painting was done from a photo I took in London, at Trafalgar Square in London where we visited in June. I don't notice a huge difference between the earlier painting and the last three, which I painted this last January and February. I believe that I have modified my technique of painting with the water colour medium so that now I paint in a freer manner. I feel more in control of the medium and much more confident. That takes a long time to achieve with this medium, and I feel that I will continue to do that as time goes on. I don't have a problem with the composition of the image, which really was optimized during the taking of the photograph itself. So far I am happy with the outcome of these four.

The Blue Boat (as per Winslow Homer)

I started painting again once I was able to move around a bit in my sunroom/studio, (recovering from a broken hip and surgery), and continuing on with my art classes at the U of A extension department. I'm in my second watercolour class, and the assignment was to do a copy of a famous watercolour artist's painting. I chose Winslow Homer, a well known American artist at the turn of the century. This is my copy of  "The Blue Boat", which Winslow Homer painted in 1892. Here is a copy of his actual painting:

So I generally don't like to copy other painter's works, but it was an assignment for the class. I was fairly happy with the outcome, though, and feel that I did capture the essence of his painting. I like this style of painting, which is quite impressionistic, yet it does retain a feeling of realism.
I think that the watercolour is quite suited to this style of painting, and I am growing in appreciation of this medium.

San Juan River Overlook, Utah

I finally got back to posting an image from my trip to Arizona and Utah this fall. I've experienced a bit of a setback recently, having suffered from a broken hip due to a fall. But no matter, I will be back to getting out as soon as I can to do some more photography, as well as some painting.
This photo was taken the last day of my trip, on the San Juan River near Butte Utah. It was taken early in the morning at sunrise, with the sun at our backs. This shot I decided to process as a black and white image. The colour image was nice but it lacked something. I think I have a tendency to favour black and white images anyway, harkening back to my film shooting days with the Monochrome Guild guys.
The downside to this image was the cloudless sky, which is always a problem for me. The sky is just a blank area in the image which does nothing for the composition, so I cropped it quite a bit.
It is a nice composition with the S - shaped river in the centre of the shot, which is always a good compositional element. I also like the variation of tonality of the trees in the centre of the image.

Coal Mine Mesa, Arizona

I recently went on a trip to Navajo land in northern Arizona. My companions were also photography enthusiasts who shared a similar interest, not just in photography in technical terms, but in photography as art. Our teacher is Alain Briot who lives in Arizona and conducts photography workshops that are a bit different than the average photography workshops that focus mostly on equipment and location. Alain teaches us to approach photography as an art form, helping us to develop our personal vision of the art we produce.
This trip took us to little know Navajo locations in Arizona and Utah, that few photographers visit. Several of these locations are also considered sacred by the Navajos that live on the reservations, so they are not always enthused to see photographers encroach on their traditional lands. This was one reason that our group consisted of a limited number of people, so as not to draw attention to ourselves.
Coal Mine Mesa is a beautiful place where coal seams are evident in the strata of the canyon. The colours we see here are created by the soft morning light just before the sun rose over the horizon.  The colours change dramatically as the sun rises, from a rosy colour to a golden yellow colour. The window for taking these types of photos lasts for maybe an hour and a half. After that the terrain is bleached by the hot Arizona sun.  

Cathedral in Bourges France

I liked this image because it has an abstract quality to it, that I didn't notice until I processed it in Lightroom. I like the tonality of the image very much, which I intentionally created by reducing the saturation of the image, greying it down somewhat. The abstract quality of the image is that it looks very much like a face looking down at us. Almost alien in nature. You can see the head, the eyes, and mouth of the alien face.  Shots like this are hard to take without distortion due to the extreme height of the interior of the cathedral inside, and having to take the shot from the floor level. So extreme curvature is created as a result. Problems like this can be overcome with a large format camera which allow movements of the front lens and the back of the camera, a sometimes complex operation, that can eliminate or correct curvature. In this digital image, I resorted to using a "distortion" filter to correct the curvature as much as I could.

Montmartre and Sacre Coeur Paris

One of my favourite areas to visit in Paris was the district of Montmartre, near the Sacre-Coeur. Here you will see, among many other attractions: side walk cafes,  galleries,  and artists selling their paintings on the sidewalk, and also willing to do a portrait of you, for a price of course. The atmosphere here is unique,  a few minutes away is the Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart Basilica), which is the second highest viewpoint in Paris after the Eiffel tower.

It's a bit of a climb to the top of the stairs to the Basilica, but the view is worth it. 

The French government commissioned the building of the Basilica in 1873 to symbolize the return of self confidence after the devastating years of the Commune and Franco-Prussian war. The architect was Paul Abadie, and he employed Romanesque and Byzantine styles of architecture. Construction continued through world war I, and was consecrated in 1919. 

Eiffel Tower

I took this shot from the roof of a tour bus in Paris. The conditions to take a shot from a moving vehicle is not always ideal, since you are moving while taking pictures. I did have to make a few adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop to correct some lens distortion that did result from taking the shot under these conditions. Pictures like this are always challenging to take since there are often people in front of the desired image that you would prefer not to include in the shot, and it is hard to hold the camera still while moving. However I was fortunate that this was not a major problem in this instance. The light for this shot was quite nice, and I always prefer to have a cloudy sky similar to this case, whereas a clear blue sky can often be uninteresting and dull. The people in the middle distance created an interesting feeling to the overall image.