Caribbean Steps - Hybrid Art

This work, Caribbean Steps, is what I am calling a 'hybrid' or 'fusion'. The basis was a really low resolution digital picture taken in low light. Not a great shot by any stretch of the imagination. I cleaned the shot up in Photoshop, fixing all of the usual things; brightness, contrast, hue and saturation, until I got a photo that was better than the original snap. Then I manufactured an HDR set of pictures, using the RAW exposure settings and saving them off so the exposures were ranged from -1.0, to 3.0. I generated the HDR in Photomatix and did the Tone Mapping, leaning somewhat more to the 'overdone' side of HDR - clearly a bit more surreal than the actual scene - and a lot brighter.

Once I had this, I picked the color palette, and saved that and I rendered a simple B&W sketch in Photoshop from the HDR photo. I painted the sketch in sticking to the color palette using primarily watercolor and texture brushes.

Once that was done, I masked in the HDR shot using a texture brush, with the painting to emphasize some of the more detailed elements of the scene (flowerpot, drainpipe, lantern) to allow these to be more realistic than the 'stained glass' painting effect on the rest of the scene.

By the way, the original shot was taken at a restaurant in St. Thomas, at The Old Stone Farmhouse, at around 8pm in December. The colors were all there in the stones, but were far more muted, particularly given the light. This is how I imagined the scene should look in full daylight.

Angelic

A high contrast, slight blur, HDR shot of one of the angels at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Like being transported to ancient Greece or Rome.

Thinking 'Longer'

I was driving home from the grocery store this morning when a large hawk flew in a swooping motion coming very close to hitting the car. This launched this chain of thought...

The hawk has a white belly, the vultures have black bellies. Why? Because the hawk hunts live rodents, etc. and is designed to blend with the sky so they can't see him coming. The vulture eats dead things, so no need to hide. My thoughts jumped to chameleons, and other creatures that blend in perfectly with their environment - great hiders. It seemed improbable to me that so many things are out there that can hide like that. It seemed lucky - a bit like someone made a wish and all of a sudden their physical nature was changed. OK, stay with me here... so even though I know about evolution, survival of the fittest and all that, I still had that moment where it seemed just as likely that it could have been a wish.

The mind isn't geared to 'blink' to the real process which takes hundreds or hundreds of thousands of years to actually be accomplished. The real process where some hawk was born with a lighter belly, and he succeeded in eating where another one with a dark belly did not. The light-bellied hawk then got to make more light-bellied hawks, and so on and so forth. Basically an anomaly occurs, and it works out, better than the status quo. The anomaly's successes continue over time and voila we have creatures that can emit light, that can change color, or that generally blend in with their environment.

It's harder for people to think about that process that takes a long time to get somewhere, because you want to jump to this thing has always been. And whole cultures make up stories to explain these things; like the hawk made a deal with some native spirits to have white feathers and the vultures didn't get in on the deal (I made this up, but you get my point...)

So try thinking 'longer' as opposed to bigger!

Ice Skating in Charlotte on Christmas Eve

Welcome 2010!

Being fond of transitions - at least the good ones - the marking of a year past and entry into a new one, holds much significance to me. Like most people over the age of 25 (at least that was the age this happened for me) I tend to notice the progression of time more acutely than before that age. More conscious of my own mortality and yet no real desire to stand still; not that it would matter because time marches on anyway. I also think that if you are more aware of the passage of time, it moves more slowly - similar to the old wives tale of a 'watched pot never boils'. This New Year was very interesting to say the least. Living with teens and almost teens is certainly not boring. So with the music loud, lights strobing, subterfuge and hormones, the New Year was rung in with a host of friends and family, all focused on the same thing for a few minutes around midnight; Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve.

This is one of my works from the evening.

Walking on Tryon

This is a sketch of uptown Charlotte inspired very recently by a particularly great outing to Chima, a Brazilian Steakhouse in the heart of uptown. With a group of seven in place to celebrate a coming of age birthday, we braved the cold - yes cold - Charlotte December weather, and plenty of teenage enthusiasm for eating large quantities of meat.

After spending the equivalent monies on Guarana as we might have on a fine bottle of wine, tasting every meat offering, salmon, swordfish, filet mignon, all cuts of steak, ribs, pork, chicken, some wrapped in bacon, and an intense salad bar, and the tiramisu birthday cake finale, we took a rather quick walk (remember the cold) up Tryon taking in the activity.

So this is a memory of the energy, the happiness, and of being on the edge of having every door wide open, in full light, straight ahead.

Finally! Covered Bridge from Carolina Touch

Well this one has taken forever to finish. Must be the time of year or something, but I have so many things in progress and just cannot seem to finish any of them. This painting belongs to the Carolina Touch trio along with Master Potter and Potters Wheel. It completes the series as they all are from the Seagrove / Ashboro area of NC. A beautiful area with a rich history of artists and for the appreciative, just amazing scenery.

Inspiration is in the serenity and the beauty of the area. The bridge, the last time I visited it, was marred by spray paint, in large unimaginative swirls, likely done by the same sort of people that randomly message on the walls of public restrooms. The historic society that is responsible for the care of the bridge, challenged by limited funds, doubtless allowed the markings to remain longer than they would like.

Even with the low-brow graffiti, the bridge was stalwart in it's reflection of a long history and it's overarching visual remained untainted.