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S.Weber

~ Traveler / Artist / Photographer / Observer

S.Weber

Tag Archives: art

Works In Progress…

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Caribbean, Nature, Painting, Pastels, still life, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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art, arts, landscape, nature, outdoors, painting, Pastels, rain, reflections, special place, St Martin, travel, tropical

Aren’t we all?!

Who said something about standing in the spring rain?

Oh, yeah… that would be me.
And here, it happens every day… faithfully. Everything reflecting in the lovely Italian marble floor… so beautiful, so… dangerous. I brought an old box of pastels, broken and worn. I used them years and years ago…I think. I’m so used to my soft pastels in the big box there was no hope of bringing along. So… the old box would do, of course!

Mistake.

I used these? Seriously.

They are the hardest, most frustrating materials. And…they won’t be returning to New England… they’ll be used up or buried on the island where no one will ever think of looking for them. A mystery one day when unearthed.

Until then… a reflective pool after a spring rain.

A work in progress.

After the Rain

After the rain – Pastel work in progress – approx 20×15

Collecting time…

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Caribbean, Painting, still life, Travel, Uncategorized, watercolor

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art, arts, beach, Caribbean, painting, pebbles, St Martin, still live, texture, travel, watercolor

For all we really do is stand here

in a springtime rain and wonder if

time is passing by or we are passing

through time. Grasping every moment,

every drop, every breeze, every tick

of time. And do what we should do.

Beach pebbles - 12x9 watercolor

Beach pebbles – 14×10 watercolor

Unfinished but… delicious.

02 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Caribbean, Food, Painting, still life, Travel, Uncategorized

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art, arts, food, painting, St Martin, still life, Susana Weber, texture, travel, vacation, watercolor

Are you done with those yet? The light isn’t right… it’s not going to be right today. Well… alrig__…. Hey!

Acacados - 12x9 watercolor

Avacados – 12×9 watercolor

 

Waking…

29 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Caribbean, Painting, Travel, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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art, challenging yourself, inspiration, learning, paint sketching, reawakening, special place, St Martin, travel, vacation, waking up, Watercolors

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.

I learn by going where I have to go.

From “The Waking”-  Theodore Roethke – 1953

image

It’s a sad thing when your electronic devices remind you that your last post was one year ago… Very sad indeed… Sigh…

Then… Good morning. Waking. Inspired, as always by a tropical sun and warm breeze. Making use of my time and all these reflections and shadows. I’m waking… Going where I need to go.

 

Aftermath…

17 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by Susana Weber in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized

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abstract, art, hidden picture, macro, macro photo, nature, Nemo, outdoors, photography, sfterwards, snow, snowstorm, texture

Storm

Winter storm Nemo is just getting started at 7:30 on a Friday evening in New England.

A winter storm in New England… a Nor’easter as well, with its spiraling bands of snow overhead and gale winds whipping the tides… sigh. An all too familiar set of circumstances here. We deal… that’s what we do. It’s inconvenient at best, a true pain if the power is out for any substantial length of time… but for once, in the case of Nemo, we all seemed more than ready for the work it takes to move it all out of the way so life could go one… just go on for goodness sake. We endure…
it’s what we do. Afterwards… it’s a different world for those of us who like to look really, really close.

Even before it's over...

Even before it’s over…

The garden doesn’t see to mind the new white blanket.

Shadows and light in the aftermath of the storm...

Shadows and light in the aftermath of the storm…

... play tricks on the eye and mind.

… play tricks on the eye and mind.

And familiar things in the world look different… look like other things even… a man sitting watching birds, or a graphic ocean wave from a Japanese woodblock print.

A red-tail hawk on my kitchen window.

A red-tail hawk on my kitchen window.

Storm surge in miniature in the corner of the window.

Storm surge in miniature in a frosted corner.

The Accidental Artist

08 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Photography, Uncategorized

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abstract, accidental image, art, caribbean blues, close up, country life, decay, grunge, hidden picture, home, local characters, macro, macro photo, painting, peeling paint, photography, texture

The Rusty’s Truck Series

My friend Rusty comes over and hunts out in the woods… during bow season in the fall. When he’s not doing that… or hanging out at the local village store/coffee shop/post office in our little town with the other “guys in pick-up trucks”… he’s up on somebody’s roof. Rusty is an excellent roofer and his truck can be seen in all the best driveways around town.

Strange Sun

Strange Sun – Rusty’s truck series

A few weeks ago, his truck was parked in our driveway… along with a few others as we got some house and yard projects taken care of. Rusty was here putting up staging on the roof for our local house painter. His truck and all his ‘roofin’ stuff was parked under my studio window. I stood staring down at years and years worth of worn wood and metal and paint and welding and rust, and grunge and… well, I just had to record some of all that amazing beauty that was right under my nose… literally!!

Untitled 1

Untitled 1 – Rusty’s truck series

After some friendly teasing about about my taking pictures of his creative welding techniques and a few examples of what I was capturing from the back of the camera preview screen… he was pointing out areas that might be good subjects for a shot. Soon, both he and the house painter were directing my efforts, offering drop cloths and paint buckets as possible subjects.

So… even my friend Rusty is an artist and he doesn’t know it! I hope he enjoys the gallery of images from the “Rusty’s Truck” series.

Carib Sunset ~ Rusty's truck series

Carib Sunset – Rusty’s truck series

Surfs Edge – Rusty’s truck series

Untitled 2

Untitled 2 – Rusty’s truck series

Deep View

Deep View – Rusty’s truck series

A-B-N

A-B-N – Rusty’s truck series

Filling the empty canvas…

16 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Painting, Uncategorized

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art, arts, canvas, inspiration, intensity, painting, special place, St Martin, travel, vacation

The large white space has been knocking around this room and that one for longer that I remember… a 4 x 5 foot canvas… totally empty, that I bought for something that must have been in my mind years ago. Every now and then it would be in the way and it would get shuffled to the basement or the studio upstairs… or even used in the big window in the summer as a sun shade. Forgotten, it would sit in a corner… or behind a stack of frames where I’d eventually rediscover it. It’s accusatory white face gleaming at me… wanting to be painted and hung somewhere… anywhere. It developed a cut from something… a careless moment or pressure from some unkind frame or piece of orphaned glass leaning too close… Oops! so sorry… I hope it doesn’t hurt too much. A 4 inch gash 2 inches from one edge. Now that would have to be fixed before it could be painted… another delay!

Lucy's Snack Inspiration

Lucy’s Snack Inspiration

Several years ago… (God, this sounds awful!) I actually decided what I wanted to paint on the now spotted, fingerprinted and slashed white stretched surface. Vacationing in St Martin a few winters back, I took a photograph of a building whose orange color hurt the eyes to look at it… but, it changed the mood of the day to pass by it’s glowing walls! Everyone who walked in it’s presence looked outlined and “graphic”. One woman walked by in an outfit the same orange color. It was AWESOME! But, even though I could ‘see’ the finished painting in my mind… the start was still years away. Then……………………. I started.

Work in Progress in the photo studio... this thing is BIG!

Work in Progress in the photo studio… this thing is BIG!

The photo is fine for a photo but the painting in my head was a lot closer… a color-blocked composition with a figure walking through it. I rearranged the elements… sky, wall, roof, gate, sidewalk, street, figure… tighter and more focused… the elements becoming an abstract by themselves. Oh, and see that big hole on the right… yeah, gotta do something about that. I sketched the elements out and used a little fixative on the charcoal lines… then rough scrubbed in the blocks of color and values. Because this was so set in my mind, I felt there were few decisions that hadn’t been worked out even though I don’t remember thinking about it that much. I was just executing an already done painting. Weird… Next…

WIP 2

WIP 2

Things started picking up and I put an orange wash all over the figure and the sidewalk. Anything in front of the walls of Lucy’s Snack would glow! The under-painting let’s me work through what the values of the elements should be. I left off the iron gate because it would be easier to over-paint the wall instead of painting around the delicate lines. I really missed it as an element and couldn’t wait to get it back in.

WIP 3

WIP 3

I work on detailing some of the green metal roof, putting in a shadow for the figure on the wall and under-painting the clothing. The time of day is early morning just after sunrise with the sun low in the sky. This is when colors are their most intense, washing out in mid-day and softening in evening. This is the best time of day to photograph… and I love the light. The light is certainly an important subject of this painting. Oh, yeah… the hole is patched. Duct tape on the back and filled the gap with gesso and orange paint. Fingers crossed.

WIP-4

WIP-4

More detailing, building up that glowing color on the walls, adjusting values… darker or lighter… over-painting the clothing to the black and white in my vision… Really missing that gate. She needs that element to walk toward… to be ‘grounded’.

WIP 5

WIP 5

Finally… the gate from the unseen doorway. It adds so much… oh, well… that’s just me. Things are coming together. Lots of adjusting here and there… I think her head looks too big… so, I make it smaller from the back taking out some of the cap in the final. Seeking more movement in the skirt. Finishing the sidewalk textures and the street and painted stripes. The purse looks too important… no, just unfinished. I add a texture and more shaping, a shadow, a reflection from the white skirt on the bottom.

Morning light... Final

Morning light… Final

Is it done? Seems to be. I’m trying not to overwork it. Time will tell.

WIP face detail

WIP face detail

The canvas size makes it hard to see detail… so I’ve included these. It is great to keep a record of whatever kind of art project you’re working on.

WIP Final detail

WIP Final detail

Filling the big white space...

Filling the big white space…

So it’s done… the white canvas is no longer getting kicked from place to place. There’s a fortune in orange paint on it. The price of canvas has doubled since this one was purchased. And the empty white space in the kitchen is filled with something that reminds me of a very special place on the planet. It makes me smile… and want to plan the next trip there!

Saving Mid-Day

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Image Post Processing, Learning, Photography, Uncategorized

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art, arts, bright light, dark shadows, fashion, landscape, learning, Lightroom, mid-day shooting, model, nature, outdoors, photography, Photoshop, plants, post processing, saving images

I don’t have many shoots where we’re outside after 10am in the brightest sun of the day… but it happens. In this case, we only had mid day on the hottest day of the summer in New England. We were all sweating our clothes through… except the model who never broke even a drop of sweat!! How did she do that??!! Anyway, our limited time found us outside in a garden with clear primary colors and heavy dark shadows… extremely bright highlights and an impatient and sweltering crew. A year later and I’m looking at these images with new eyes in light of having installed the new Adobe Lightroom 4 and Photoshop 6.

I’ve been testing the new features as I find them… or need them and the new organization in LR where “Fill light” is broken into Whites and Blacks, Highlights and Shadows… 4 separate sliders that really let you put your finger on what an individual image needs. In addition… in PS6 there’s a whole new “Blur” gallery that will simulate the lensbaby effects but with more precision about where the image will be blurred, what direction the blur will take, by how much, etc. Very controllable and fun to play with! There’s even a “Tilt/Shift” blur! Cool!

There’s lots more but I’d rather share some of the results of trying to do something more with all these mid-day shots. Some alternative treatments to the first which is the original. Suggestions welcome… what would you try?

Mid-day original
Mid-day original
Mid-day Fill
Mid-day Fill

Mid-day pastel blur
Mid-day pastel blur
Mid-day split tone BW
Mid-day split tone BW

Mid-day selective color
Mid-day selective color
Mid-day midnight glows
Mid-day midnight glows

Archway
Bench

We did find a little shade in corners to hide in and a few of the new tools worked better than what I was able to achieve a year ago.

Archway

Bench

Playing with fire…

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Photography, Uncategorized

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abstract, accidental image, accidental images, art, arts, clouds, hidden picture, landscape, macro, macro photo, peeling paint, photography, volcano, volcanos

Volcano 1

Volcano 1

In my ongoing and seemingly endless project of organizing my files, finding a way to work off the network that my husband and I both use… and do a little editing along the way when something interesting pops up in the files… I found a collection that I didn’t know I had! What a nice surprise. And… an odd subject as well which, makes them even more attractive to me. :) Volcanos!!!

I do realize that the hidden picture… or Accidental Image isn’t the most exciting of subjects… but, most people do identify with the phenomenon of seeing something that is an accidental occurrence… and recognizing it’s existence. The most common is perhaps the clouds that look like rabbits or profiles of people, angles or fish shapes. Just how common is it? Well, I host a group on the Redbubble site which is all about these hidden pictures and the membership has reached 800+ and there are are 16,300 images in the group collection!! Come visit the group and click on the “Gallery” in the menu to scroll through the image thumbnails. Click on any thumbnail to go to that images page.

So, here is my little collection of smokin’ mountains of molten whatever from the center of the earth… distant views with smoke spewing in metal, concrete, asphalt and a peeling paint diagram of magma tubes as plain as day. I hope I find some more!

Volcano 2

Volcano 2

Volcano 3

Volcano 3

Volcano 4

Volcano 4

Volcano 5 Magma flow

Volcano 5 Magma flow

Re-evaluating B&W in the digital world

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Photography, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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art, arts, B&W photography, landscape, nature, photo editing, photography, travel

The Sleding Hill

The Sleding Hill – Boxford, MA

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts is presenting a marvelous new look at the works of Ansel Adams from now until October.  It’s a fascinating look at an iconic photographers work… with some surprising images that send me back to my own collection of work to re-evaluate the whole black and white idea in my own portfolio.

Peabody Essex Museum – Ansel Adams: At the Water’s Edge.

In the 60’s and 70’s my photographic interest was totally in the B&W darkroom. My husband and I would build a darkroom in the basement or bathroom of whatever apartment or house we were living in and spend our evenings in the dark with our hands in the chemicals… adjusting exposures, dodging and burning… to achieve the range of tones of the great Modernist photographer who was already a legend.

Adams system involved ‘previsualization’ which meant the artist should imagine what the final print should look like before he even took the shot. Today’s modern digital cameras provide that in the ‘scenes’ setup modes in even the least expensive models… and the digital preview on the screen that shows what you’re about to shoot… and what you have shot!! B&W and sepia toned images are possible without even the slightest bother of a darkroom tray. I wonder what Ansel would say!!

I went back to my own files, in which I’ve only made a few conversions to B&W over the past few years. I was interested to see if the modern B&W processes would turn a few of my favorite images into something new and different. I have to admit that I saw them with new eyes in their new B&W forms. The process let me visualize what they should look like before the conversion and that helped me make the decisions of tone and exposure along the way. A far cry from the smelly darkroom dodging and burning and more satisfying results!!

Rainbow from the Pass

Rainbow from the Pass – Ireland

Murphy's Pub

Murphy’s Pub – Dingle, Ireland

Garden of the Gods - Colorado Springs, CO

Garden of the Gods – Colorado Springs, CO

Johnson's Pond

Johnson’s Pond – Boxford, MA

Maple walk

Maple walk – Bradford, MA

On the road in VA

On the road – Virginia

Witch Hollow Barn

Witch Hollow Barn – Boxford, MA

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